Hezekiah was a godly man, doing what was right in the eyes of God (2 Kings 18:3).  But, what specifically did he do?  Believing that there is only one true and living God, he removed the places of idolatry from the land.

2 Kings 18:4 (ESV)
⁴ He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).

Asherah was a goddess worshipped by the Canaanites, but it was also a wooden pole that stood at various places where the goddess would be worshipped.  That the Jews had these kinds of places of worship was a disgrace to them.  They fell so far into idolatry that they even began to worship the bronze serpent that Moses made in the wilderness to save people from the poisonous snakes sent by God.  This bronze serpent was actually a type of Christ (John 3:14-15), but the people turned it into an idol.

Hezekiah knew that if they were going to restore their relationship with God, they had to serve only Him.  Being the godly man that he was, He had no desire to dabble in idolatry.  His whole heart belonged to God, and Him alone.

If you want to be godly, you must remove anything in your life that gets in the way of putting God first.  You must be as serious about this as Hezekiah was.  He did not simply command the people not to worship the Asherah; he got rid of it.  He did not try to keep the bronze serpent around for old times sake; He destroyed it so that it would never be a problem again.  He did this because he knew that God is jealous, demanding that His people worship Him alone.

Is there anything in your life that stops you from putting God first?  I know we do not erect statues or wooden poles as places of worship in our houses, but, to some, the house itself becomes an item of worship, along with other material possessions.  Money and material things are the god of too many people today, including some members of the church.  That is why Paul reminded the brethren at Colossae that covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5).  Man can fall in love with material things so much that he even wants that which belongs to others.  Let us all examine ourselves to make sure that Yahweh is the only God that we serve.

If we are truly godly, God will come first in our lives.  Furthermore, we will take inventory of our lives from time to time, just to make sure that we are not serving any other gods.  We should love our families, but not worship them.  We should appreciate the jobs we have, but not elevate them above God.  We should be thankful for this great country in which we live, but not place it before our Christianity.  Our relationship to God and commitment to things that are spiritual must come before anything else in our lives.  Only then will we truly be godly like Hezekiah.  If, when we take the time to examine our lives, we discover something that might be idolatrous in nature, let us be like Hezekiah and remove it right away, making sure that we are serving only God.       

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.