ANOTHER BONUS DEVOTIONAL. Enjoy!

Ii Chronicles 34:1a, 3, 8 Josiah was eight years old when he became king….In the eighth year of his reign…he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images….In the eighteenth year of his reign…he sent Shaphan to repair the house of the Lord ….Now…Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses…..

Josiah, the last good king of Judah, became the last reformer before the Babylonian Exile. He “began to seek the God of His father David” when he was sixteen, and thus began a series of unanticipated, nation-changing events. He destroyed idols, cleansed the land of ungodly practices, and ordered the Temple to be repaired. That alone is worthy of respect and scriptural praise.

But there was much more.  When Josiah began seeking the Lord, he didn’t know what would happen next. He had no idea that his reforms would eventually turn toward the Temple. He couldn’t have anticipated that the Book of the Law of the Lord would be found during the cleanup. Or that the reading of it would shake him like nothing ever had, leading to a renewed covenant with God and His people, and the reinstatement of the Passover celebration. And he certainly couldn’t have foreseen that his reforms would reach north into Assyrian-occupied Israel.

But all these things happened because Josiah had one plan: to seek the Lord, and to do His will, and leave the rest to God. Seeking God’s will for Josiah was like following divine breadcrumbs, eventually leading him to complete a reformation he never could have planned out himself.

What about us? What’s our plan? Is seeking Him and doing His will our first and highest plan, with everything being a subset? Or do we have plans that just include prayer, Bible reading, church attendance, etc.? Planning is necessary for many a project in our lives. But our life plan should be simple: to seek the Lord first, follow His will, see where it goes, and hold everything else loosely.

Seek, obey, repeat. There will be lots of smaller plans in our lives. But those three simple words are the best life plan imaginable.

Prayer; Father, help me to repent of creating any plan in my life other than seeking You and doing Your will. Like Josiah, I have no idea where this will lead, and I get fearful about that at times. But I see glory in Josiah’s life, and I want to follow his example.