- At the king’s command they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. 1 Kings 5:17 – The massive undertaking of building the first temple of the Lord was now under way. King Solomon sent word to the neighboring land of Lebanon to purchase wood from them. The king also set apart tens of thousands of workers to dig for and cut costly stones to be used in the building. Something to take note of is the quality that Solomon sought to build with. Lebanon’s cedars were the best of the best wood you could build with. For the foundations of the temple only great, costly stones would be used. As we’ll see further along in the process of building the temple, Solomon only used the most excellent resources his great wealth allowed him to get. This example is one the Lord desires us to follow when we think about building up His church. Only the best should be given. God deserves more than our scraps of time and our halfhearted efforts. He deserves everything we can give Him! If then you were to evaluate the quality of your work for the Lord, whether it’s work given to building up the church or growing your own walk with the Lord, is the quality the best it could be? Or is the Lord more often getting our leftovers instead of our first fruits? As we live for Jesus today, seek giving the Lord even just a little better quality of whatever it is you’re giving to Him. He deserves the best, and a start to getting there is giving Him more of you than you did yesterday. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3048
- 1 Kings 5 Daily DEVO But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. And so I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to David my father, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.’ 1 Kings 5:4-5 – When God gives you the peace you’ve been praying for, what will you do with it? Solomon found peace from his enemies and he chose to do what God set him aside to do by building the temple. We to should use the peace we are given to build God’s name up where we are at. If we actually find a season where we aren’t feeling tons of pushback from the enemy, run with it as hard and fast as you can to carry out the mission to let others know about Jesus. Granted, you’ll probably run into a struggle quickly that way, but it’s what we exist to do. Enjoy the peace that God gives, but use it as well. It’s crazy how far you can get when nothing is holding you back. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1006
- And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty. 1 Kings 5:12 – Promise and peace. Both show up in this passage and both are essential to the work being accomplished. God kept His promise to Solomon on giving him the wisdom he asked for and there was peace between the two kings. What was then the end result of this promise and peace? The temple of the Lord being built. A place of worship to God and a place to help redirect the eyes of God’s people back to the grandeur of the Lord. Remember in our story we’ve been given promise and peace too. God has kept His word of providing a Savior and we now have peace with God. God has given us what we need to build just like in the passage, yet are we building? Building relationships to point people to Christ. Building our foundation on the scriptures so we can more properly stand. The ingredients to building our life as God calls us to are now in place because of the promise and peace of God. Let’s get building then. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2189
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