"No U-Turn!"

Scripture Passage

2 Kings 21:1-9; 2 Chronicles 33:1-9; 2 Kings 21:10-17; 2 Chronicles 33:10-19; 2 Kings 21:18; 2 Chronicles 33:20; 2 Kings 21:19-26; 2 Chronicles 33:21-25; 2 Kings 22:1-2; 2 Chronicles 34:1-7; Jeremiah 1-2:22

Scripture Focus

He did not turn away from doing what was right.
                                         (2 Kings 22:2 NLT)

Observation

Must…resist…the…urge…to comment…on everything…I thought…

Okay, I won’t mention how remarkable it is that, after all his unfaithfulness, Manasseh was welcomed back by God, restored to power by Him, and effective in leadership for Him (2 Chron 33:12-13).

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Wow—how about that boy-king Josiah? Eight years old when he takes the throne…sixteen when he begins to seek the Lord in earnest…and by the age of twenty he’s leading the whole nation of Judah in serious religious reform! So what national influence were you exerting by the age of twenty? :)

The beauty of Josiah is not in just how he started, however—it’s in how he finished. “He did not turn away from doing what was right” (2 Kings 22:2 NLT).

Every one of us has “started” doing right at some point or another…many of us, many, many times! But the difference with Josiah is that he never stopped doing right! Seems so simple when I write it like that. “Just don’t stop doing what you’ve started doing, Kent!”

The challenge, of course (or at least part of it), is that faith-in-action doesn’t go unopposed…that as long as I sit idly on the sidelines, I’m no threat to anybody, but when I engage what’s right and oppose what’s wrong, Satan takes notice and ramps up the opposition. Today I take heart from a youngster’s example (cf. 1 Tim 4:12) and determine not to "turn away from doing what is right."

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