Today’s encouragement:
Here some five hundred years after the Exodus, the house of God becomes a permanent structure. With great fanfare the desire of David’s heart is fulfilled by Solomon as God promised. The temple is complete and the ark of the covenant containing the Ten Commandments is finally placed inside.
Immediately God fills the temple with His glory as a cloud overflows from within. The presence of God is so powerful, that it literally drives the priests out of the temple. (Imagine as a faulted human being, how overwhelming it would be to be in the presence of God’s complete holiness.)
From verse 23 to verse 54 Solomon calls out to the Lord restating the promises of God and asks for them to be fulfilled. Some could see this as disrespectful, as if Solomon is trying to hold God accountable, for His word. It isn’t disrespectful, because that is exactly what God wants us to do.
You see He makes promises to His people because He wants to fulfill them. He is waiting on us to call Him on it, so that He can provide for us. (Malachi 3:10) The Lord delights in being there for us and seeing our dependence upon Him. This is the way our relationship is supposed to function.
The world tells us to be self sufficient, but in fact we should be wholly dependent on God. It is through our weakness and dependence that God’s great strength can be revealed. He says it Himself in speaking to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Let’s be dependent upon God in all aspects of our lives and watch Him shine in every area of our lives.
1 Kings 8