Devotional For Women

But Ahaziah's sister Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took Ahaziah’s infant son, Joash, and stole him away from among the rest of the king's children, who were about to be killed.

2 Chronicles 22:11, NLT

Desperate times call for decisive people. Jehosheba made a moment's choice that changed the course of a nation. Ruthless queen Athaliah was about to murder every prince in the royal family. The murderess was probably Jehosheba's own stepmother. Further, there was another twist of fate--Jehosheba's brother Ahaziah, the recently dead king, had been the only survivor when king Jehoram's sons were all murdered years before. History was about to repeat itself in a gruesome way. Jehosheba decided to rescue at least one of the children. She kidnapped her nephew Joash and hid him away in the temple with her husband Jehoiada, a priest. For the next six years they became his parents-in-hiding. When he was old enough, he was declared king, and Athaliah's reign was brought to an end. Jehosheba will be remembered as a key link in the chain of royal descendants of David. She preserved by a single life the ancestral line into which Christ was born. The crucial moment in Jehosheba's life demonstrated one important lesson: Even when events are filled with evil; we are still called to do good where we can. We may not be able to change everything, but if we can take even one positive action, we ought to do so. Since we don’t know how great an effect a single act will create, our challenge is to do the best we can with the opportunities before us. It does take courage to act when we aren't assured of the outcome. It takes courage to trust God in the face of danger and despair. But these are the times when trust, faith, and courage matter. Sooner or later the choice to do good must be made in the face of risk. Your "to do" list today may be filled with mundane actions. But there may be at least one that will require courage on your part. In any case, like Jehosheba, you can't know what God will accomplish through small faithful actions on your part. You simply need to do your part.