Standing Before God

Transcript

Hello, my friend… good to have you here today. This is By God's Call — day 134, Standing Before God.

"And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book." 2 Chronicles 34:31.

To understand this moment, I need to tell you what happened just before it. During the temple's renovation, the workers found a book — literally found it — the Law of God, lost, forgotten, buried in dust in some corner nobody had visited for generations. When it was read to Josiah, he tore his own clothes. Not because he didn't know God, but because he suddenly saw the distance between what was written and how the people — and he himself — were actually living.

And it's after that moment that today's verse arrives. Josiah doesn't make a quiet, private gesture of silent regret. He stands in his place — publicly, in front of the whole gathered people, and makes a covenant before the LORD. Notice: he doesn't hand this off to a priest, doesn't send someone to represent him. He positions himself. Because there are things a person has to do with their own body, their own voice, with no one standing in for them.

And what does he promise? This isn't a surface-level adjustment of behavior. He commits to walk after the LORD and keep, with all his heart and all his soul, His commandments, His testimonies, His statutes — everything written in that rediscovered book. All of it. Not part of it. Not just the comfortable commandments. Whole heart, whole soul. This is the opposite of a lukewarm, conditional commitment with an exit clause ready for when things get hard.

And there's one word in this verse I don't want you to skate past: perform. Not just agree. Not just sign your name, applaud, feel the emotion of the moment, and go back to the same routine. Perform the words of the covenant. Real faith, my friend, always turns into practice. It moves out of the emotion of the moment and into Monday morning, into the hard decision, into obedience nobody else is watching.

And there's one last thing I need to point out, because it changes everything. Josiah did this first. Before calling the people to also renew the covenant — which he did right afterward — he had already taken his stand. Spiritual reform in a nation, a family, a church, always begins with the one who leads. Not the one who follows. If you're a parent, a leader of any small group at all, the question isn't "how do I get everyone else to change?" The question is: "where do I need to stand, today, before God, and renew my own commitment?"

Maybe you also have a rediscovered book this week — a word God brought back, a conviction you had let go cold, a calling that got buried under the dust of routine. Today's question isn't whether you agree with it. It's whether you'll take your stand.

So, before breakfast, do this: stand up — literally, on your feet — and out loud, renew before God one specific commitment you had let grow cold. Name it. Say out loud: "Lord, today I renew this with all my heart and all my soul." And then live it out on Monday, on Tuesday, every day that follows.

Stay close to God. Renew the commitment — and keep standing firm. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.