"All his life Joash did what was pleasing to the LORD's sight because Jehoiada the priest instructed him." 2 Kings 12:2 (NLT)
Joash, the son of King Ahaziah, became king at the ripe old age of seven. Seven years old and you are appointed the king of Judah. Talk about pressure. Yet God had a plan to protect Joash from the weight of this responsibility. In His great mercy, the Lord provided Jehoiada as a mentor. His positive influence helped Joash accomplish good things.
Being a spiritual mentor is a big job. A mentor is a wise and trusted counselor or teacher. Their purpose is to lead their mentee or student to maturity so they are ready to own their own faith. Jehoiada did this as he advised young Joash. His hope and goal? For Joash to become a strong king who loved the Lord and would lead his people in God’s ways. How disappointed Jehoiada would have been to know that Joash's faith and leadership, dependent on Jehoiada’s continual guidance, failed once the teacher passed away.
We can learn a valuable lesson from this story of triumph and failure: faith cannot be borrowed, it must be owned.
Borrowed faith will fail in a crisis. Real, personal, and genuine faith—a faith you can call your own—will hold you up during calamity. This faith is a relationship with God through loving Him, praying, reading and obeying the Word, giving praise, and serving and loving others. Such faith trusts God to be your hope, joy, provision, strength, and guide. This kind of faith will be there when your wise and trusted teacher is not.
How do you make your faith your own? Take the Word and ways of the Lord personally. Meditate on Scripture day and night (Joshua 1:8) until it becomes second nature to you. It will be the greatest teacher and mentor in your life.
