Jamie Holden
- Jun 19, 2022
- 3 min read

June 19, 2022

Josiah

When I was in my late twenties, we visited a church where the pastor challenged his congregation to have a “Josiah Day.” For those who don’t know what this means, Josiah was one of the good kings in Israel. He followed God with all of his heart and obeyed all of God’s commands.

Josiah didn’t follow just a little—no, he was EXTREME in his obedience.

Why? Because he knew that up until then, his people were EXTREME in their disobedience.

As we read in 2 Kings 22, one day while they were working in the Temple, the Book of the Law was found. As soon as it was read to Josiah, it wrecked him. He was brought to tears and tore his robe seeing how far God’s people were living from God’s ways.

So he sent for the prophetess, who basically said, “I’m sorry, but it’s too late. God is going to judge His people for their sins. But it won’t happen in your lifetime.”

At this point, Josiah could have done a few things. He could have seen the situation as hopeless and thought, “Nothing I can do.” He could have taken a deep breath and said, “At least it won’t happen to me.”

Instead, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work getting rid of ALL idol worship and every single thing associated with idol worship in his kingdom. Read the chapter and see that he was EXTREME—getting rid of EVERY SINGLE THING that was against God’s Law.

Then, he got God’s Temple back in shape and re-instituted the proper practices for worshiping God that were abandoned long ago. He led the people in celebrating the Passover and did all that he could to get the people back on track.

2 Kings 23:25 describes him this way: “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.”

Today, King Josiah sets an example that many of us need to follow as we commit to being ride or die men of God.

It is time for us to go through our lives, through our hearts, maybe even through our houses, and get rid of everything that doesn’t please God. It’s time for us to stop saying, “Well, everyone else is doing it. No one else has a problem with it.” We need to stop making excuses for our sin and compromise and go to extremes in passionate obedience to God.

It’s time to get rid of books, magazines, internet sites, television shows, movies, hobbies, habits, or anything else that is displeasing to God. We need to abandon anything connected with the occult, magic, witchcraft, yoga, or any foreign religion. It’s time we stopped playing around with pornography and say, “Once and for all, it’s out of here.” It could be alcohol or an especially violent video game. Really, the possibilities are endless of sinful things that Christians entertain that should be abolished from their lives.

It’s time to go all Josiah and get them out of our lives once and for all!

Then we need to commit to ride or die, implementing true spiritual disciplines into our lives. We need a fresh commitment to prayer, Bible reading, and Bible study.

It’s time to make a ride or die commitment to obeying God and abandoning disobedience. It’s time for a Josiah day.

By: Jamie Holden, Mantour Ministries

Today’s Scripture:

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord.

The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. (2 Kings 23:1-3, NIV)

New International Version (NIV)

June 19, 2022

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