Hezekiah is the next king in our journey. He is one of the few good kings. Our verse says, “…he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.”

Hezekiah is all about spiritual revival! He was not a perfect King as we’ll see in the next few days, but he began by bringing the practices of true worship back to the nation as it was in the days of David. He tore down the various idols that the people had built for themselves. They had turned to the practice of the peoples of the land. These were characterized by fleshly sins of over indulgence of every kind. But he did more than stop these sinful practices. He established the practices of true worship where the people treated each other according to the laws of the land and thus, he rebuilt the nation on what they did, not on what they didn’t do. Many times revival is defined by what we give up, rather than what we do.

Our Daily Bread once told this story: Sam Jones was a preacher who held revival services, which he called “?quittin?’ meetings.?”  His preaching was directed primarily to Christians, and he urged them to give up the sinful practices in their lives.  Sam’s messages were very effective, and many people promised to quit swearing, drinking, smoking, lying, gossiping, or anything else that was displeasing to the Lord. On one occasion Jones asked a woman, “?Just what is it that you?’re quittin?’??”  She replied, “?I’m guilty of not doing something—and I’m going to quit doing that too!?”  Even though she had no bad habits to give up, she wasn’t actively living to please God.

As we think about our New Year’s resolutions for 2010, we should consider the things we should “start” as well as the things we should “stop.”

Chuck
“But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7(NLT)