Saturday, July 22, 2017

Sat.’s Devo - Choose Life and Peace

Read: 2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10;
Solomon stood and prayed before all the people. He praised God for his faithfulness to keep his word and he prayed a blessing over the temple and asked God’s presence to always be there. He prayed that it would be a place of meeting with God; a place of repentence and restoration. He led the people in rejoicing in God’s goodness and great love. The priests could not enter for the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The altar could not hold the sacrifices there were so many. It was a perfect day of God showing his love toward man and vice versa.
I couldn’t help but notice that the foreigners did the slave labor and the Israelites ruled in the army and in Solomon’s kingdom. That is the way God wants it to be. The body of Christ is to be the leaders in society and the world is suppose to be our slave. We are slowly seeing this shift but it is not coming without opposition. Even as leaders, we are to be servants and carriers of God’s love. Our goal is to make the foreigner a son of God. Spiritually, this means that we are not to be a slave to sin. The “ites” still living in the land were there because the Israelites failed to destroy them. They stayed as reminders of their disobedience. Solomon turned them to work in their behalf. That is what we have to do with our past failures. We use them as a testimony to help others who are facing the same situations.
Romans starts with one of the most important statements: “We know that the law is spiritual.” Just understanding this statement will make the Word come alive for you.
Paul spelled out what Solomon was doing. Paul said that if you live with your mind always thinking about what you want you will only get death, but if you control your thoughts and choose to allow the Spirit to control your thoughts you will find life and peace.
Lord, help us to control our anxious thoughts and choose life and peace.

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