"While he was still young, [Josiah] began to seek the God of his father David." - 2 Chronicles 34:3
King Josiah was in love. So he pursued the love of his life. He pursued God.
John Eldredge, in his best-selling book, "Wild at Heart," says that part of pursuing the love of your life includes showing the love of your life that they're the only love of your life. So you need to send the other competitors for your heart packing.
So that's what young King Josiah did. Since God was the love of his life, Josiah sent the other competitors for his heart packing.
God's Word in the Bible describes Josiah's casting out of the competition in this way. "[Josiah] began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols... The altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars...and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols... He burned the bones of the priests on their altars... He tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem." - 2 Chronicles 34:3-7
So, what are the competitors for your heart? They're probably not "high places, Asherah poles and idols, altars of the Baals, incense altars, and Asherah poles and idols." But whatever the competitors for your heart may be, do the following:
Send them packing.
"Why?," you ask, "And what do you mean?"
In Matthew 22:37-39, we hear Jesus say: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself."
Note, in quoting the Hebrew Bible, Jesus does say "As your first love, God is to be loved "with all your heart," that is your whole heart.
So send the competitors packing. For it is only by completely loving God, who first loved us, that we find that God then gives back to us enough love and wisdom to rightly love the people in our lives and enough wisdom to rightly oversee the things in our lives.
The way it shakes down is this: 1) pursue the love of your life, God, with all you've got and 2) keep everybody and everything else in perspective!
So, "While he was still young, [Josiah] began to seek the God of his father David." - 2 Chronicles 34:3
God will surely provide, as we seek to do the same.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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