Worship

Scripture

My parents moved when I was about twenty-one years old. While helping them clean out the attic and other storage areas, my mom asked my dad, “Should we keep any of these boxes?” My dad responded, “Whatever is in there has been in there for the past 15 years. We haven’t needed it in the past 15 years, so I doubt we need it now. Trash it!” My dad was trying to make the process of moving forward as easy as possible and didn’t want any unnecessary weight or boxes getting in his way. Josiah felt the same way. He was ready to move forward with God’s plan and he wasn’t willing to allow all the baggage from the past to hold him or his people back. So, he cleaned house. He found idols, places of false worship, brothels, and destroyed them – with a vengeance. 

One of the things Josiah does is destroy some golden horses located near the temple. Now, this one, in particular, caught me as interesting because I can see why it still stood. Of course, some elements were easy to point to and say, “Hey! Get that out of here!” Yet, the golden horses seemed somewhat harmless. I can hear people saying, “Yeah, they were dedicated to the sun, but they are nice! Let’s just leave them.” I think it’s this attitude of apathy and appeasement that lead the Israelites through their numerous loops of sin-suffer-repent-flourish-repeat. They allowed little things to be accepted which snowballed into bigger things. 

We also can find ourselves in this dangerous cycle. “I know I cut them off, but they were going too slow!” This one action may not seem like that big of a deal, but it’s not the action that is troubling – it’s the heart behind it. The justification of sin is what leads to sin pouring into our life. When you crack the door open for sin, it comes rushing in like a torrent. Josiah knew that he needed to slam the door in sin’s face in order to rid his people of debauchery. He knew that even though the golden horses in and of themselves didn’t seem like a big deal, he knew their presence represented an attitude of apathy that would ultimately lead his people down another dark road of sin and suffering – A road not worth traveling.

Prayer

HONOR GOD

Psalm 121:8

The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time and forever.

 My Protector and Defender is the Lord of angel armies, I will not submit to fear of opposition.

ASK GOD

James1:5

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

 When I dont know the answer in my situation, God does and He is good enough to reveal his wisdom when we ask for it.

SUBMIT TO GOD

Malachi 3:10 NLT

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 

Can we afford to offer just a tenth of our time, thought, money, energy to the Lord. He is ready and willing to abundantly bless the portion that we give to Him.

CLOSING PRAYER

Dear Lord and Savior of mankind, thank you for the Cross! Thank you for the Cross! Thank you for the Cross! Can we say it enough? Say it again: “Thank you for the Cross!”  In Jesus Name, Amen.