The Power of Repentance
How easily do you confess and repent your sins to God?
Verse of the Day
“When the king heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair.”
Today’s Devotional
Have you ever lost something that was incredibly valuable? I can remember a time that I was on a hike in Colorado next to a stream. I was sitting on a large boulder overlooking a waterfall. When I stood up, as it was time to go, I couldn’t find my cell phone. Without realizing it, my cell phone slipped into the water as I stood up (or at least that’s my best guess). Another time, when I was with my sister-in-law, she looked down at her hand and realized her wedding ring was missing. She figured she must have taken it off while we were cooking, but we could not find it anywhere. A few hours later, after searching everywhere, my niece spotted something shiny on the floor. You can just imagine my sister-in-law’s relief and delight when her ring was back on her hand.
Today’s story is a little different from the above examples. The people of Judah didn’t even realize that they had misplaced their most valued possession, which was the Book of the Law. Sadly, there are times in our lives when we have no awareness of how valuable a gift we have been given.
Let’s look at today’s story. It comes from 2 Kings 22 and 23. I’d love for you to read it on your own.
We are focusing on King Josiah today. Here are my observations from these two chapters:
- His dad was assassinated, and he became king of Judah at the age of eight. (Part of this comes from chapter 21)
- He was not a micromanager (22:4-7)
- His heart was humbled and convicted at the reading of God’s Word (22:11)
- He did not presume to be able to speak directly to the Lord. Instead he asked the priests to go speak to the Lord for him. (22:13)
- God honored Josiah’s genuine repentance by withholding the consequences until after his death. (22:19-20)
- Josiah pledged his whole-hearted obedience to God in front of everyone and all those under his authority did the same (23:1-3)
- He removed and destroyed all the pagan shrines and altars, and removed all the people who were leading others to worship other gods. (23:4-20, 24-25)
- He reinstituted the celebration of Passover in obedience to God’s Word. Passover had not been observed or celebrated for many years. (23:21-23)
- After Josiah’s death, the process of Judah being taken into exile began. (23:31-37, 24:1-3)
After reading Josiah’s story, it makes me want to pray for a heart that easily sees and accepts where I am wrong when it is pointed out. Josiah was just going about his duties as king when one of his men told him about this scroll that was found. Josiah’s quick repentance followed by obedient action is amazing to me. Clearly, based on all of the shrines and altars that were torn down, there was a massive amount of pagan revelry happening among God’s chosen people. They had followed the crowd and the ungodly culture to the point that they were barely recognizable as God’s people. Josiah’s willingness to radically change what was acceptable in the community was very brave and incredibly obedient.
Based on this story, God honors heartfelt repentance. God delights when we choose His ways over what our culture says is acceptable. God’s ways and His instructions for us are often in direct conflict with what the world is telling us to do. How radical are we willing to be in our repentance and our obedience?
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How valuable is God’s Word to you?
How easily do you confess and repent your sins to God?
What changes (radical or not) is God asking you to make?
How have you seen God honor sincere repentance?
Where and how can you obey God today no matter what the world says?