Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, and let it be used to repair whatever damage is found in the temple. (2 Kings 12:5)
ONE OF THE WORST MISTAKES you can make in any venture is to throw out the old with no plan for the new. You’ll see this time and again. Companies downsize to save money but have no plan for how a reduced workforce will reach the same level of production. Churches sometimes abandon low-functioning programs with no clear idea of what to do instead. Revolutionaries realize the old government isn’t working but may have little idea how to govern a country themselves. It isn’t enough to say what’s wrong. At some point you must point to what’s right.
Joash showed great wisdom in launching a campaign to repair the temple of the Lord at the start of his reign. He understood that it was insufficient to tell people, “Don’t worship Baal,” without telling them whom they should worship instead. The new king engaged the whole country in raising funds to refurbish the temple. And it worked. People are more easily motivated by a positive vision than a negative one.
Holiness is about what’s right, not what’s wrong. If your view of sanctification encompasses only what to banish from your life, it’s half formed. Eliminating sin is the starting point, not the end, of our salvation. The Spirit wants to construct your new life with righteousness, holiness, faith, hope, and love. Let’s get building.
Name the virtue you are now seeking to acquire.
Lawrence W. Wilson is the author of A Different Kind of Crazy (WPH) and coauthor of The Long Road Home (WPH). He lives in central Indiana and blogs at www.lawrencewilson.com.
© 2018 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
