God uses Teenagers

This post is longer than a normally do. However, I have thought about dong a post on this topic for a while because it is something that I am passionate about. Please read on and leave a comment to let me know what you think. One of my favorite people in the Bible is King Josiah. We find the story of his life two times in the Bible. The first place is 2 Kings 22-23 and the second place is 2 Chronicles 34-35.

2 Kings 22:1-2 says, "Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozzkath. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left."

We are not Josiah. When I was eight years old I was not made Queen. But what I really want to show you is in 2 Chronicles 34:2-3 "And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images. The carved images and the molded images."

When Josiah was 16 years old he chosen in his heart that he was going to follow God. Josiah had no godly role model to follow. His grandfather was King Manasseh. 2 Chronicles 33:2 says this about King Manasseh "But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel." It does not get better for Josiah's father Amon. 2 Chronicles 33:22 says this about King Amon, :But he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done; for Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which his father Manasseh had made, and served them."

I am fortunate to have a godly father and mother. In the end it is our decision to either follow God or walk away and ignore it. If we choose to follow God before we can make any impact we must seek God just like Josiah did. When he was 16 years old he chose to seek God and follow Him. By age 20 he was leading the entire nation of Judah back to God. He destroyed the idols. At age 22 he had the temple restored. It took a long time to bring revival to the nation that had been swimming in sin for a long time. When they were restoring the temple Hilkiah found the book of the Law. When Josiah herd the words form the book of the Law he tore his clothes. He knew that his fathers had not followed the Law and how far Judah had fallen. He had the Law read to the people. 2Chronicles 34:33 says, "Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not depart from following the LORD God of their fathers." Josiah changed an entire nation. But the revival of the nation started when Josiah chose to seek God when he was 16 years old. I am 15 years old. God used Josiah. God can use me and God can use you no matter what age you are when we seek God.