Hold Tightly to a personal relationship with God

Don’t let your personal relationship with the Lord depend on someone else!

Joash, a Judean king for forty years, was fortunate to just be alive. If his Aunt, Jeosheba, had not grabbed him up when he was a baby and hid him for six years from his wicked grandmother, Athaliah, he might, if God had not interceded, have been killed along with her other grandchildren.

Jehosheba’s husband was the priest Jehoiada, and he had a significant influence on Joash until he, the priest Jehoiada, died at age 103. Then everything went downhill for Joash and his people as he aligned himself with God’s opponents and started worshiping idols.

Jehoiada’s priest son Zechariah (not the writer of the book by the same name) told the people, “Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has forsaken you.”

Many of us may be like Joash and remain faithful to the Lord as long as everything is going our way, someone is holding our hand, or pushing us to ostensibly remain faithful to the Lord, however superficial that faith may be.

The challenges of life multiply: a woman loses her husband, so she turns from the Lord; the breadwinner of a family loses his job, so he turns from the Lord; things don’t go like one wants at church, so he turns from the Lord; an auto wreck leaves one bound to a wheel chair, so he turns from the Lord. The list can go on and on.

May we not be like Joash and have to depend on someone else to keep us faithful to the Lord. Let us not allow what others do to interfere with our personal relationship with the Lord. May we resolve to remain faithful to Him regardless of what others do, how many unanswerable challenges come our way, or how many bad things come our way. Let’s strive for a personal relationship with the Lord and unswerving faith in Him who has promised He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5b). – Edna M. Walling, Newsletter Editor of WBS