- Let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, giving ear to them whenever they call to you. 1 Kings 8:52 – As a way to officially consecrate the temple to be ready for service, the last piece had to be brought in. The ark of the Lord. Once in its place, and the cloud of Shekinah glory filled the temple, we see Solomon make requests of the Lord. He knew he was sinful, and he knew the people of his kingdom were sinful, and he knew such sins would lead them all to places they wouldn’t desire to be. Places like in captivity of an enemy, or overran by plagues, or defeated by an enemy. Solomon’s request was that if the people of God, after feeling the consequences of their sin, were to choose to turn from their sinful ways back to a pursuit of the Lord, that the Lord would see and hear this repentance and help His people. That the Lord would bring them back home from captivity, that the Lord would end the plagues, and that the Lord would bring the needed victory. If repentance was found in the people, the prayer was that God would see and God would move on behalf of His people. Thankfully in our story the Lord didn’t wait for us to move before He moved. Jesus was sent to die for our sins while we were still sinning and rejecting the Lord. God moved on our behalf while we were moving away from Him. How great is the love we have been shown from the Lord! If God was willing to sacrifice His own Son for us when we were in complete rejection of Him, how much more will the Lord move on our behalf when He sees true repentance within our lives! Know then our Lord sees, hears, and moves on behalf of His people. He is seeking repentant hearts, and when sighted, nothing of Hell’s power can keep the Lord from saving His child. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3051
- 1 Kings 8 Daily DEVO But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! 1 Kings 8:27 – King Solomon understood that even the grandest of temples he could build could in no way contain God. He knew that this temple was not now a way to trap God or to control God. This was going to be their way of drawing close to God and connecting with Him. Today, God says we are His temple and Jesus is the sacrifice that brings us close to Him. When reading passages like these, remember things are different now because of Jesus. The veil is torn, you have been made a holy priest in God’s sight, and you have permission to walk confident into the presence of God. All because of Jesus and nothing you do can change that. This same God that could not be contained by the heavens is now freely available to you to come to because of Jesus. Take full advantage of this gift. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1009
- The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. 1 Kings 8:57-58 – King Solomon just finished building the first temple of the Lord and brought to it the ark of the covenant. These are some of the words he said within his prayer of dedication of the temple. What we should be reminded of with this prayer is our hopelessness without God in our story. If God is not with us we can’t even pursue Him. It’s God who opens the doors for us to lean our hearts into Him. It’s God who enables us to walk in His ways and keep His commandments. Without God we have nothing of this life we have with Him. We can’t know God, seek out God, or come close to God without God’s help. Yet, what’s so beautiful about the Christmas season is we celebrate the coming of Emmanuel…God with us. Know God is with us. He is helping us know Him. He is making it possible to seek Him out. He is walking with us to help us come close to Him. Know God is being faithful to do His part. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2192
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