1 Kings 6:11-12: Then the word of the
Lord came to Solomon, saying: "Concerning this temple which you are
building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgements, keep all my
commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My word with you,
which I spoke to your father David."
God is speaking to Solomon
about the mighty temple that He has chosen for Solomon to build, and the
Lord says to him that if he would just follow the commandments and
regulations that He has given, that He will perform a magnificent work
through Him and fulfill the plan that God has in mind for him. It is
fairly simple to understand what God is saying for Solomon to do, but
the bigger question is, how do we apply these verses to our own lives?
It
all boils down to the "temple" that we are building. God has given us
all specific commandments to live by and ways in which we ought to
conduct ourselves. Many times I feel as if God isn't working in our
lives as much as i would hope for, but recently I've been convicted that
it is because maybe we aren't building the right temple. 1 Corinthians
6:19 says, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple for the Holy
Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?"
Paul is telling us that our body is a temple for the Holy Spirit to
reside and work in us, and maybe the reason that we sometimes feel like
we aren't being used is because our temple isn't a fit environment for
the Holy Spirit to live. Take a step back from life for awhile and
examine the temple you are building and whether or not it is being built
according to God's statutes. Lust, lies, and sinful desires of every
kind plague our lives and hinder our growth as Christians, and I know
that personally I am not building a temple that is wholly glorifying
God. But the beauty of grace is that it can change. We are all sinners
and we fall away from the Lord's commandments, but with Christ at the
center of our lives, we can always come back and build our temple God's
way, because as Paul states, you "are not your own", and our bodies
aren't really ours, they belong to the Lord. Treat them as such.
