There was once a young boy named Josiah. He was probably like most boys his age, except for one small difference: Josiah was the King of Judah! He was only eight years old, but he was king!
Josiah was a good boy who loved God and wanted to serve Him, but there were many people in Josiah's country who didn't serve God. There were people in the land who worshipped false gods and had forgotten how God had cared for the Hebrew people. They worshipped statues and idols instead of the Lord. They loved the things of the world, instead of the things of God, and they had forgotten how to keep God's laws and commandments. Josiah wanted his kingdom to trust in the Lord, so things had to change!
One day, Josiah gave an order: Go tell the high priest to get the money that has been brought into the house of God and use it to hire workers to rebuild the temple of the Lord. The people did as their king commanded, and work began on the temple right away. Then something incredible happened. While working on the temple, they found the book of the law of Moses. It was God's Word that had been missing for hundreds of years!
They immediately took the book to King Josiah and read it to him. Josiah was stunned! He had finally heard the Word of God, and realized that the Hebrew people were not serving God as they should! He was so devastated that he tore his clothes. He knew that God was not happy with them, and He had to do something about it.
King Josiah knew that everyone must hear God's Word.He gathered the people together and read God's Word aloud for everyone to hear. Then Josiah made a covenant with the Lord. They would keep His commandments and serve Him with everything they had!
All the altars to false gods were torn down and destroyed. The statues and idols were broken and burned, and the people renewed their faith in the One true and living God!
Josiah had learned that the Word of God corrects us, and we need to live by It. When the kingdom of Judah was in sin, it was God's Word that got them back on the right track. The same is true for us. We have God's Word available to us whenever we want It. We can read our Bibles as often as we want, and we can hear God's prophet speak directly to us.
If you ever feel like you are not serving God the way you should be, just do what Josiah did; get back in the Word of God!