- And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 1 Kings 9:3 – In chapter 3 we see the Lord speak to Solomon (this was the time when He give Solmon his wisdom), and now Solomon is blessed with a second appearance from the Lord. After building the temple and after sacrificing on the altar an abundance of offerings, Solomon prayed that the Lord would see their work and bless the people that worshipped Him there. God graciously appears to Solomon, tells Solmon He had heard the prayer, and we see in our verse God consecrates the Temple. This means God made it holy, He set it apart for Himself. This is a very important lesson we need to remind ourselves of. We aren’t the ones that make anything holy. We can’t make a worship service holy. We can’t make church holy. We can’t make a person holy. Only God can do that. Only God can take away sin, which reveals our desperate need for His work in our lives. Pray then that God would make your church and times of worship holy for Him, that they would be separated from sinfulness completely and only filled with His Holy Spirit. Pray that God will make holy the lost around you, that He will call them to Himself and He will save them. If you have been saved from your sin, dwell on the reality that it was not you who saved you and made yourself holy. It wasn’t your efforts that earned you the descriptor of “holy,” you carry that only because of the sacrifice of Jesus and the grace of God. While its humbling to think that we can’t even make ourselves holy enough to be close to God on our own, praise the Lord we have a God that enjoys doing that for us. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3053
- 1 Kings 9 Daily DEVO And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 1 Kings 9:8 – Sometimes we can see our life like this house spoken of in this passage, a heap of ruins. Everything seems to be falling apart and nothing is working. We see in this passage that the reason the house was to fall apart was because the people took their eyes off of God. Could that be your situation as well? Sometimes the reason things aren’t working out is because we’ve decided to go our own path rather than following God’s direction. As with our passage, God will use the “ruins” to remind us His path is the one we should be on. Examine your path. Is the struggle you are facing there because the path you are on isn’t the one God wants you on? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1010
- But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day. 1 Kings 9:12-13 – Why Hiram was displeased with the cities is debated, but most of the commentaries I looked up believe it either was because they were cities in locations Hiram didn’t want or because the land in the cities was rough and would need a lot of work to be ready to use. Either way we see a gift being given and an ungrateful heart in response. What response are we then giving to God to the gifts He gives? Unlike the cites given in our passage, we can have a confidence that the blessings God gives are good and meant for our good. Do we though take and forget to show our thankfulness. Do we accept the blessing, say thank you with our words, yet live a life that demonstrates a lack of gratitude? Whether is the gift of salvation or the breath in our lungs or the people in our story, let your response be one of thankfulness to Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2193
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