"Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD."
2 Chronicles 34:27 (NIV)
Our heart controls our actions; our heart is our will! Josiah heard the Word of God in its entirety, and his heart was responsive, which caused him to humble himself before God and tear his robes and weep over his own sin and the people's sin. Our Lord Jesus taught us that "blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted" and so this young king whose heart responded in humility to the Word of God was comforted by God Himself.
This is our responsibility before God; when we hear the Word of God, will our hearts be responsive and cause us to weep and seek God's face? Or will we ignore the Word, harden our hearts and be ruined? Some of us weep and say the words of repentance, but when it comes time for us to act, we will not obey. Our hearts control our actions; our heart is our will.
Josiah not only wept and humbled himself before God, but he got up from prayer and set about the very painful task of bringing his life and the life of his nation into line with the Word of God. Let us note that this revival started by the reading of God's Word. Not until they found the Scriptures, opened the Scriptures, then read the Scriptures, and not until their hearts responded to the Scriptures did revival occur. May we be people of the Word this day!
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