Most people want to live a significant and purposeful life. Sometimes this realization comes when we have a little bit of downtime to reflect. For many of us, it happens towards the end of the year because of the holidays. Maybe it’s Thanksgiving and you have a couple of days off. Maybe it’s Christmas break and you finally get some space. You’re running errands and doing all the things you don’t normally get to do, but you also get time just to sit—time that isn’t the normal routine.
Christmas morning, you might wake up before the kids, or maybe you don’t have kids and you’re able to drink your coffee in a little bit of silence. You’re able to sit with your thoughts and reflect in ways you don’t have time for on regular Saturday mornings. At the end of the year, people start thinking about what kind of changes they want to make moving into the next year.
A lot of people set resolutions. Back in the day when people got the newspaper, you’d start seeing exercise equipment advertisements right after Christmas because everybody makes the resolution to lose weight and get healthy. Maybe instead of newspapers now, you see those ads online—workout equipment, gyms offering great deals. People spend a lot of money and then wind up not going after January and February. But this is the time people take to make these resolutions: lose weight, save more money, turn over some new type of leaf, get healthier.
Beyond Self-Improvement
As believers, we should do that too, but we should be doing it in the light of considering what God’s plan for our lives is and what He wants for us. Being at the end of one year and looking forward into the next, it makes sense to think about our new year and to reset. But not just to better ourselves as people—we need to examine where we are spiritually. Not just to take better care of ourselves with our health (and you should want to do that), but what about developing the spiritual man or woman inside of you? Not just growing muscles, but how about growing in the knowledge and understanding of the Word of God and being led by the Holy Spirit?
As we reset our calendar, let’s also take the time to reset with Jesus.
The Story of King Josiah
There’s a Bible story that’s really powerful and one we should all know and be familiar with—the story of King Josiah. The year was 640 BC. Josiah was eight years old when he became king in Judah. His father was King Ammon, a terrible king. His grandfather was terrible as well. Being young and uncorrupted by all those things was actually good because Josiah is considered a very good king.
When he’s sixteen years old, eight years after becoming king, he starts to seek the Lord. Four years after that, when he’s twenty, he starts to clean out the temple. Then when he’s twenty-six, he starts to repair the temple. That’s when something major happens for Josiah and for the people of Judah.
In 2 Kings 22, we read that while the temple repairs were happening, Hilkiah the priest found a book—what many believe was the book of Deuteronomy. After years and years of neglect and bad kings not following the Lord, the true things of God had been hidden away. Someone had the wisdom to hide it, and as they were cleaning and repairing, they found the book of the law.
When King Josiah heard the words of the book read aloud, he tore his clothes. That was a representation of total dismay and anguish. He realized that although he had lived as he was supposed to and cared about the things of God, the people were not doing what God had called them to do. They were in a bad situation.
A Covenant Renewed
The king sent messengers and gathered all the elders of Jerusalem and Judah. Then he went to the Lord’s temple with all the men of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets—all the people from the youngest to the oldest. As they listened, he read all the words of the book of the covenant. Then the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant in the presence of the Lord to follow Him and to keep His commands, His decrees, and His statutes with all his mind and all his heart. All the people agreed to the covenant.
This is significant. Other kings had read the Bible and experienced a change of heart, but they didn’t bring all the people into it. Josiah did. After years of neglect and not hearing the Word of God, the people heard it, and they were with him. They agreed to make this covenant to follow after the things of God.
Cleaning House
What Josiah found in the temple was disturbing. Inside the very place where God was to be worshiped, previous kings had brought in things dedicated to Baal and Asherah—gods that were not supposed to be worshiped. Josiah commanded that all those articles be brought out and burned in the Kidron Valley. He did away with the idolatrous priests. He brought out the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple, burned it, beat it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.
He tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were in the Lord’s temple, where women had been weaving tapestries for Asherah. How crazy had things become? This place was holy. When Solomon built and dedicated the temple, God’s presence came in so thick that no one could stand. From that, things had devolved to cult prostitutes living in the temple area. Josiah said, “We’re not doing any of that.”
He defiled Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom so no one could make their children pass through the fire to Molech. He did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance of the Lord’s temple. He tore down altars that kings before him had made. He defiled the high places across from Jerusalem that King Solomon had built for the detestable idols of foreign nations. He broke sacred pillars into pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with human bones to completely defile them.
Three Hundred Years of Idols Destroyed
Here’s what’s remarkable: some of these things had been standing since King Solomon’s time—roughly three hundred years earlier. Even the good kings before Josiah hadn’t done away with them. Destroying something three hundred years old would be like someone going to the Alamo in San Antonio and tearing it down. People would say it’s a historical site. Josiah didn’t care. These were monuments to false gods, and he wasn’t going to allow them to stand. That’s how passionate he was for the things of God.
He even marched up to Bethel and dealt with the golden calf that Jeroboam had set up to keep the people of Israel from going to Jerusalem to worship. He went into the former kingdom of Israel, now owned by Assyria, and took care of all these things.
Then the king commanded all the people to keep the Passover as written in the book of the covenant. Scripture tells us that no such Passover had been kept from the time of the judges through the entire time of the kings of Israel and Judah. Nobody had observed the Passover like it was supposed to be observed—like Josiah insisted on.
In addition, Josiah removed the mediums, the spiritists, household idols, images, and all the detestable things in the land. He did this to carry out the words of the law found in the book. Scripture says, “Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his mind and with all his heart and with all his strength according to the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him.”
The catalyst was being in the Word of God—finding it, reading it, understanding it, and being obedient to it.
Resetting with Purpose
However you want to reset, whatever things you feel you need to reset, the most important thing is to reset who you are spiritually. Not just saying you want to be better spiritually the way we do with our resolutions—”I want to lose weight, build muscle, save money.” Let’s do it with the things of God. Let the things of God be the catalyst that causes us to move forward, to get that supercharge we need.
Josiah already had a heart for the things of the Lord, but he had a heart change that caused him to make a renewed covenant to do what God wanted. It wasn’t only internal. It wasn’t only for the palace and the people under him. It was for all the people of Judah. He brought them in and said they were going to get right with God. Everybody agreed.
Keep God’s Word in Your Mind
Deuteronomy 6:6 says, “These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.” Deuteronomy 11:18 says, “Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads.”
In the ancient world, people believed the heart was the seat of thoughts and thinking. Today, that translates to our mind. When God says to put His words in your heart, He means keep the things of God at the forefront of your thinking. Keep them top of mind. Keep them close.
For Christians who go to church on Sunday and that’s all the Scripture they ever read, all the prayer they ever pray, all the things they ever do with the things of God—you’re not going to be able to keep the things of God top of mind. You’ve got to keep it close. That’s what Josiah did. He kept it there all the time, and it was the spark that changed his whole reign as king.
Pursue Righteousness
Josiah cleaned out the temple, did the repairs, and started cleaning house everywhere—even destroying three-hundred-year-old memorials and altars. He didn’t care how old they were or who built them. They weren’t of God, so he wiped them out. He went into the land of Israel and cleared things out there too.
Righteousness means being right with God. Josiah wanted to be right with God. He wanted the temple area to be right with God. He wanted the land and the people to be right with God. It was important to make sure the things of God were foremost.
Deuteronomy 6:24-25 says, “The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation as it is today. Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.”
Moses was letting the people know: prosperity and preservation—your way of life will continue if you follow the things of God, if you stay right with God. Be careful to follow all the things He has said. Be right in your relationship with God.
Stay Obedient to His Word
One of the things Josiah was obedient in was the Passover. They hadn’t celebrated it properly since the Israelites left Egypt many years ago. Josiah wasn’t just saying it sounded like a good idea—he was reading it because God had commanded it. “Do the Passover. This is a festival you need to remember.”
Deuteronomy 28:58-59 says, “If you are not careful to obey all the words of this law, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awesome name, Yahweh your God, he will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants.”
That was part of what Josiah read. He understood that if they weren’t obedient, consequences would follow. But if they were obedient, God would bless them in incredible ways. Josiah had that heart for God, wanted to be right with God, and wanted to make sure he was obedient to the things of God.
For us living right now, moving into a new year, let’s live with dedicated passion. Hearts given over to Jesus. Dedicated passion to maintain righteousness—not of our own, but because of Jesus’ work and sacrifice for us. Dedicated passion to stay obedient to the Word of the Lord, being led by the Holy Spirit in everything we do.
A Word of Warning
We need to be dedicated and passionately dedicated, but not with blind passion. Josiah was a good king, regarded as a good king, marked by the Word of God as a good king. But he had a hiccup at the end of his life.
During that time, Assyria was losing power and Babylon was rising. Egypt had a pharaoh named Necho who had come and conquered Judah at one point, taking gold and silver. When Josiah found out Necho was passing through to help Assyria fight Babylon, he went out to meet him. We don’t know exactly why—maybe he was trying to get out from under Egypt’s control or reclaim some wealth.
Necho sent him a message: “I don’t have time for you. I’m being told by God to go fight this battle. Stay away.” But Josiah went up against him anyway. One of the archers wounded Josiah, and he died in his chariot on the road back to Jerusalem.
Maybe he was so excited and passionate for the things of God that he didn’t take time to say, “Let’s inquire of the Lord. Should I go up against Egypt right now?” He just thought, “We’ve had a lot of success. God has been blessing us. Let’s go do this.”
You’ve got to bathe everything in prayer, in the Word of God, and in being led by the Holy Spirit. The prophetess had told Josiah he would die in peace. Maybe that’s considered dying in peace. But Josiah didn’t have to go out that way. If he had inquired of God—”Do you want me to fight Necho?”—and God said no, maybe he would have died at an old age.
We don’t want to be blindly passionate. We want to make sure our passion is focused and bathed in prayer, in the Word of God, and in being led by the Holy Spirit.
Moving Forward with Dedication
As we approach the end of this year and move to a brand new year filled with promises and purpose, let’s make sure we go there in dedication to the things of the Lord. A lot of things will be vying for your attention. Instead, let’s purpose to do it in dedication to the things of the Lord—hearts that are on fire for Him, righteousness not of our own but because of Him, and obedience to the Word of the Lord and to the Holy Spirit.
When those things are in place, everything falls into place.
God is the master of the reset. When He gave us the ability to ask for forgiveness of our sins and reset our lives with Him, He showed us He completely understands and believes in resetting. As we stand here getting ready to move into a new year, may He help us. There are a lot of things in our hearts and minds, a lot of things we want and desire. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things. But let’s put Him first. The things He desires for us—let’s seek those things first, because we know that everything else falls into place.
If you don’t know where to start, the starting place is giving your life to Jesus. If you’ve never done that, that is the first thing you need to do. Or maybe you have, but you’ve been playing games and haven’t been living for the Lord. The place to start is to get right with God. Both of those are a prayer of commitment. Nothing magical happens—no fairy dust, no warm fuzzy feeling. It’s simply a commitment you make to the Lord. And the Lord says, “You’re mine. Now I’m going to fill you up with the Holy Spirit to do my will.”
He gives us the Word of God to read and understand, and the Holy Spirit to understand it, lead us, and guide us. Jesus said in John 14:17 that the Holy Spirit will be with you and in you.
Peace,
Todd