But will God indeed live on earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built. Listen to Your servant’s prayer and his petition, Lord my God, so that you may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant prays before You today, so that Your eyes may watch over this temple night and day, toward the place where You said: My name will be there, and so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place. Hear the petition of Your servant and Your people Israel, which they pray toward this place. May You hear in Your dwelling place in heaven. May You hear and forgive. 1 Kings 8:27-30
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16
My words…
Praise
Your servant David desired to build a special place for You knowing full well there can never be a building worthy enough to place Your name. But if anyone in history had a heart for honoring You on earth, it was David. And if anyone in history had the means for building the most glorious dwelling ever built, it was Solomon. Only the very best materials and the most skilled artisans were used. By earthly standards, it was beyond compare. You honored David and Solomon by consecrating the temple and placing Your name there. You – the One who lives in the heavens and has beheld beauty beyond that which can be imagined – dedicated the building made of cedar and covered in gold as the place to bear Your name. You recognized it as the very best that David and Solomon could accomplish. For Your chosen people, it was the place where You would hear their petitions, their exultation, their cries of repentance. Nothing base or common was ever to be practiced in the temple. It was a place set apart for worship. But over time, Your people desecrated it. Your enemies destroyed it. All that is left are artists’ renderings. You, not surprisingly, had Your own idea of a temple to place Your name, and it did not include walls of cedar and gold. In fact, it did not include walls at all. Your presence dwells within Your children. We are walking temples. Praise be to You, God, who has seen fit to place a part of Yourself in me.
Prayer for me
When I contemplate the reality that You, the God of which the highest heaven cannot contain, have chosen me as Your temple, I am flooded with both types of fear: the one where I drop to my knees in reverence and awe of Your perfection, and the one where I am terrified of Your judgement because You have been witness to my every thought and action – for my entire life. But then You remind me – You consecrated me, set me apart for a purpose, just as You did Solomon’s temple. So, Lord, I pray that I will become the temple You are proud to indwell.
Forgive me
Forgive me for the times I do not act like Your temple, for the times when I complain more than I worship, for the times I question more than trust.
Prayer for others
Lord, Your church is a collective temple, a group of believers with a consecrated purpose. And Your church is huge and diverse, covering the globe, lifting up praise together on days of worship, being a light in a dark world. But like Solomon’s temple, Your church is the target of enemy warfare from within and without. So today I want to lift up before You every single collective temple wearing Your name. No request is too big for You! Some temples have allowed their purpose to lapse. Others have forgotten their purpose altogether. I pray they seek You first and then keep out of the way of Your Spirit working among them.
Thank You
I am so happy that I don’t have to travel to a sacred place to offer up my prayers and praise. You are within me always, making it very convenient for me to worship You and for You to guide me. And for this, I offer You my deepest gratitude.
More praise
Oh Lord, You dwell among the heavens and within me as well. How different I am because of You! How proud I am to wear Your name – the name that is above all names!
