All His Days They Departed Not

II Chronicles 33:34, “And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.”

Josiah is someone in the Bible that really amazes me. He was only eight years old when he began to reign, and he did right in the sight of the Lord. He didn’t have a good example in his father. His father, Amon, continually trespassed, and his servants killed him in his own house (II Chronicles 33:23-24.) Josiah still learned what was right and did it.

The verse above says that the people did not depart from following the Lord all the days that Josiah reigned. Because of Josiah, many people followed the Lord. I understand that no one can actually force someone to follow the Lord, but Josiah’s influence caused others to follow the Lord whereas other kings’ bad influences would cause others not to follow the Lord. Who is it that we can influence to serve the Lord? I would hope and pray that we would have a desire to make a difference in someone’s life for the better. One of my favorite verses is Jude 22, “And of some have compassion, making a difference.” The decisions that we make, good or bad, do not only affect us. Let us make good decisions, so we can influence others to serve the Lord.

P.S. To all my readers, I like to keep track of how many people read the posts each day, but if you read via email, it doesn’t actually count it. Once you read, if you could just click the link at the bottom of the email, it will count towards the total. I’d greatly appreciate it! God bless!