What's Missing?

Let me ask you a really simple question: what is missing in your life? 

Is it:

·       The love of a family member?

·       Wealth?

·       Possessions?

·       Popularity amongst your peers?

·       Fame in the world?

·       Accomplishments, recognition, or a pat on the back?

Just think about that for a minute.

Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. 

And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. 

For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.

And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of musick. 

Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters. And

when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.

~2 Chronicles 34:1-3, 8, 12-15~

At one time, there was something missing from Josiah’s life. We know from verse one of this chapter that Josiah began to reign over Israel when he was eight years old and verse two tells us that Josiah was a good king doing right in the sight of the Lord, following David’s godly example, and not faltering away from God. But despite what we learn from verse one and two about Josiah, there was still something very important that was missing from Josiah’s life.

Before Josiah could find out what was missing from his life. He had to (in a sense) clean out his life of the things that didn’t belong there. He had to clean out the temple of God.

For some reason the temple had become sort of like a bank for money, so Josiah had his men go in and take all of the money out of the temple, so they could repair it. What’s cluttering up your life? Think back to those things that we talked about being missing from your life. Are they really necessary or just cluttering up your life? Looking back, those things aren’t missing from my life. They are just clutter.

To find this really important thing that’s missing, we have to remove the clutter – all the things that are standing in the way of God.

When all the money was removed from the temple, Hilkiah the high priest found what had been missing. It was the Word of God. It had been buried beneath the clutter of the temple and no one even knew it was missing, not even the high priest – the man of God. How is it possible that the Bible was missing in Josiah’s life – he was such a man of God.

What is missing from your life? What aspect of your relationship with God whether prayer or devotions or something else needs to grow but can’t because of the other things that have crept into your life?