Have a read through 2 Kings 22: 10-20
So we see that King Josiah’s high priest had discovered a long lost Book of the Law hidden in the temple and when Josiah reads it, he is overcome with grief at how far his people have strayed from their covenant obligations with Yahweh.
We see next how once he understands what has happened, he is now accountable for what he does with this knowledge and he quickly puts plans into action to right the wrongs done by his father and grandfather specifically.
We see that he first identifies with the sins committed and take this to heart in light of scripture, and then follows it with repentance as the gravity of what has been done breaks his heart. Next we see that he gathers his community to consult, repent collectively and thus move forward to renew the covenant.
Next we see that he systematically eliminates sinful practices by purging the temple of any illegitimate altars throughout the land and removing the heathen articles from the temple.
It’s interesting to see the lengths that Josiah goes in a proactive approach to eliminating the sources of sin – like removing the compromised priests from service in the temple and destroying pagan worship sites.
My favourite part of what King Josiah did next was to reinstate Passover – replacing the sin and fallen ways with an opportunity to gather together in a collective feast of celebrating the goodness of Yahweh.
How is this relevant to our lives today you might be thinking?
Well, these days our pagan practices might be more subtle but idolatry still exists – whether we worship wealth, acceptance, power, sex, security or any number of other false gods – that block us from being in a full and rewarding relationship with Papa God.
What if we choose to recognize that once we become aware of these strongholds in our lives, that we are now accountable to make a choice of what we will continue to do with this going forward.
We can follow Josiah’s example by proactively resisting the power of sin in our lives – even though we live in a compromised culture and are products of generations of sin – we have Jesus to show us that His kindess leads us to repentance and we don’t need to despair. We simply repent, remove the strongholds (like cutting up credit cards if we are a shop-a-holic, or limiting internet access etc) and then choose to put into our lives the practices of our faith and turn fully to the Lord with our entire beings– including prayer, confession, communion and celebration with a pure heart to grow in obedience and in faith.
The definition of ‘Sanctification’ is “the action of making or declaring something holy or the action or process of being freed from sin or purified”.
Our walk with Jesus after inviting Him to be our Lord and our Savior is an ongoing process that we need to submit to willingly as we grow and become more like Jesus in how we think and act and become who He created us to be.
Let’s pray….
Papa God,
I am grateful for Your living Word – that speaks to us and gives us examples of how You desire for us to walk out our journey in following Jesus. I am sorry for the ways I have disobeyed You -both knowingly and unknowingly – and I ask that You search my heart and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Make me more aware of any strongholds in my life that are preventing me from being close to You and blocking me from being who You created me to become. I want to serve You with a heart that is pure and that my day to day actions will bring glory to You – that others may be drawn into a relationship with you and that Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
In Jesus Name I pray,
AMEN
Bold Existence Ministries
Have a read through 2 Kings 22: 10-20
So we see that King Josiah’s high priest had discovered a long lost Book of the Law hidden in the temple and when Josiah reads it, he is overcome with grief at how far his people have strayed from their covenant obligations with Yahweh.
We see next how once he understands what has happened, he is now accountable for what he does with this knowledge and he quickly puts plans into action to right the wrongs done by his father and grandfather specifically.
We see that he first identifies with the sins committed and take this to heart in light of scripture, and then follows it with repentance as the gravity of what has been done breaks his heart. Next we see that he gathers his community to consult, repent collectively and thus move forward to renew the covenant.
Next we see that he systematically eliminates sinful practices by purging the temple of any illegitimate altars throughout the land and removing the heathen articles from the temple.
It’s interesting to see the lengths that Josiah goes in a proactive approach to eliminating the sources of sin – like removing the compromised priests from service in the temple and destroying pagan worship sites.
My favourite part of what King Josiah did next was to reinstate Passover – replacing the sin and fallen ways with an opportunity to gather together in a collective feast of celebrating the goodness of Yahweh.
How is this relevant to our lives today you might be thinking?
Well, these days our pagan practices might be more subtle but idolatry still exists – whether we worship wealth, acceptance, power, sex, security or any number of other false gods – that block us from being in a full and rewarding relationship with Papa God.
What if we choose to recognize that once we become aware of these strongholds in our lives, that we are now accountable to make a choice of what we will continue to do with this going forward.
We can follow Josiah’s example by proactively resisting the power of sin in our lives – even though we live in a compromised culture and are products of generations of sin – we have Jesus to show us that His kindess leads us to repentance and we don’t need to despair. We simply repent, remove the strongholds (like cutting up credit cards if we are a shop-a-holic, or limiting internet access etc) and then choose to put into our lives the practices of our faith and turn fully to the Lord with our entire beings– including prayer, confession, communion and celebration with a pure heart to grow in obedience and in faith.
The definition of ‘Sanctification’ is “the action of making or declaring something holy or the action or process of being freed from sin or purified”.
Our walk with Jesus after inviting Him to be our Lord and our Savior is an ongoing process that we need to submit to willingly as we grow and become more like Jesus in how we think and act and become who He created us to be.
Let’s pray….
Papa God,
I am grateful for Your living Word – that speaks to us and gives us examples of how You desire for us to walk out our journey in following Jesus. I am sorry for the ways I have disobeyed You -both knowingly and unknowingly – and I ask that You search my heart and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Make me more aware of any strongholds in my life that are preventing me from being close to You and blocking me from being who You created me to become. I want to serve You with a heart that is pure and that my day to day actions will bring glory to You – that others may be drawn into a relationship with you and that Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
In Jesus Name I pray,
AMEN
Blessings 😊,
Candace Foy
To sow a seed please visit:
www.boldexistence.com.au/giving/
2 years ago | [YT] | 125