#8
2 Chronicles 6:18 Can it be that God will actually move into our neighbourhood? Why, the cosmos itself isn't large enough to give you breathing room, let alone this Temple I've built.
2 Chronicles 6:18 Can it be that God will actually move into our neighbourhood? Why, the cosmos itself isn't large enough to give you breathing room, let alone this Temple I've built.
I realize that often my perspective of things isn’t always right. Often my highs at work are too high and my lows are way too low. Issues I have with people or family can seem insurmountable, tasks and responsibilities seem extra daunting. The Canucks winning or losing seems so super important (well it is). Life can be super hard, and life can be so amazingly great!
I was looking up a passage today which I wanted to read again, but I stumbled on this portion of scripture instead. King Solomon, the wisest man who has ever lived, just finished building the Temple of God in Jerusalem and was praying at the opening ceremony, so to speak. Right smack dab in the middle of his prayer, Solomon brings some perspective to the situation: “the cosmos itself isn't large enough to give you breathing room, let alone this Temple I've built.” I love this; the wisest man in the world, one of the richest kings ever, brings clarity, perspective, reality and humbleness to the forefront. Basically he says “God you’re really, really, really, really big and we are really, really, really small.”
In this though, I don’t want to forget that this job of building the temple was a really big deal. God had promised to King David that his son would build a permanent temple for God to dwell in. So this was a big deal to God and to the whole nation of Israel. I like Solomon, also have some very important things to do; provide for my family, love my wife and children, live a Godly life, and take care of my responsibilities; these are all very important things. This is however where Gods Grace kicks in. This is where his love gets a chance to live out:
-We are just like the temple. We are a beautifully designed, created, constructed and crafted by God and for God to live inside us. This was promised for generations and generations: Colossians 1: 26-29 ...this mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it's out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you...
Back in 2 Chronicles, Solomon goes on to pray for people who offend each other, for war, for famine, for disasters, for when people sin for the whole nation. He got his perspective right and then he laid it at Gods feet. God was now coming to dwell amongst His people in a house they created for Him. He was asking for God to care about every situation.
One of the things that I find the hardest about passionately waiting for God is that I sometimes don’t trust that he cares about me or that he really can help me. This is when I need to change my perspective. Unlike Solomon I didn’t have to build a temple, I just had to be available and willing to accept him - Now He dwells inside me. The Kings of Kings the creator of everything good, the source of life, lives in me!! How’s that for a proper perspective? I did nothing, I didn’t deserve this, I really truly am totally undeserving of Him, but God chooses to love me and live inside me!! How can I not now wait with passion, with hope and with fervency to see what He will do through me and in me?
Now that God is living in me, he wants to live in my life completely, my job is to be obedient and humble enough to bring everything to God. Each responsibility, each relationship, each stress, each tragedy God wants to breathe His life into. More than that, He doesn’t just want to bless and make things work out for me. He wants to live and interact in each moment with me. Everything I do should be an opportunity for me to let God to work supernaturally through me. Oh how I fail at this!! But oh how amazing that would be!!
“Forgive me Lord that I forget how great you are. Help me to be like Solomon and continually re-focus and shift my perspective. You are truly indescribable and great! Help me Lord not to do things out of my own strength but to use the gift, the fact that you are living in me! Thank you again Lord that you loved me enough to not just die for me, but to also live inside me and change me.”
