Mon.’s Devo - God’s Temple

Read: 2 Chronicles 1:1-3:17; Romans 6:1-23; Psalm 16:1-11; Proverbs 19:20-21 Solomon took firm control of his nation and God made him very powerful. Solomon used his power to call all his officials to Gibeon to gather at the bronze altar and seek the Lord. He sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings on it and that night God responded. He came to Solomon and asked him what he wanted. He asked for the favor and love that He had given David to be his and that God would give him wisdom and discernment to rule the people properly. God said that because he had prayed for the people and not for himself that God would given him his request and bless him personally also. He would be blessed both spiritually, mentally and physically. Solomon used his wealth to build up his army to defend his people and he started building a Temple to honor the name of the Lord, and a palace for himself. He knew that God would not live in the house he built him because even the highest heaven could not contain him but he built the Temple to offer God sacrifices. King Hiram of Tyre was asked to help him with his supplies and their craftsmen. King Hiram could see the glory of God on Solomon and helped him out in any way he needed. Solomon took a census of all the foreigners in his kingdom and found that there were 153,000. They became his laborers. He began building the Temple to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah where the plague had stopped. The beauty and splendor of the Temple that Solomon built was a glimpse of the Garden of Eden and a picture of the Temple of the Holy Spirit within us. The angels over the Holy of Holies are the picture of the two angels that stand guard over the entrance of the Garden of Eden. We are invited in. When the veil was torn the wall of partition went down and we are invited into the heavenly realm with Jesus. Hebrews calls it “entering into His rest”. We can enter into God’s rest while walking in the chaos of this world. In Romans, we learn that our sin lost its power when we were crucified with Christ at salvation. We are no longer slaves to sin or under its power. We are alive to God through Christ Jesus. We don’t have to give in to sinful desires or let any part of our body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. We can use our whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer our master; we live under the freedom of God’s grace. It is now our choice how we live. We can choose to be a slave to righteousness and become holy and have eternal life as our reward. This is good news! Lord, we choose to be your slave to righteousness. Remind us of this power we have when we are tempted to sin. Sin is no longer our slavemaster. Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit living in our temple.