Scripture: 1 Kings 8-9.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

1 Kings 9:3-5 (NLT)

3 The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holy—this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart. 4 “As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations, 5 then I will establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever. For I made this promise to your father, David: ‘One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of Israel.’

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

Solomon had just spent 20 years building the temple and his palace. He then went through a very outstanding dedication of the temple, including sacrificing well over 100,000 animals to God at the temple. He offered admirable prayers to God on behalf of himself and his people and prayed that God would especially bless any prayers offered at, or towards the temple. I believe that God was very blessed by all this, however He had a personal message for Solomon that, I believe, could also speak to us today. Quoting from sections of these verses through which God spoke to me: “…if you follow me with integrity and godliness, … obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations, then I will…..”. In other words, I believe that God will put aside all that we have done, and all that we still do in His name and for His glory, and there will come a time that He will sit us down and say, “OK buddy, now about you, here’s what I have to say to you….” I believe it is very evident that God is about having a personal relationship with us, not about us trying to prove anything to Him. Mind you, I believe that as we work on our personal relationship with God, He will use us beyond anything we could imagine, to bless Him through helping others and leading them towards integrity and godliness. I believe that in summing this whole message up today I would say that God is saying that it’s not all about what we can do for Him. It’s about our relationship with Him – if we follow Him with integrity and godliness. If we obey His commands, decrees and regulations (in other words, do we follow all that is taught to us in God’s Word). When I think of integrity, I think of people being able to trust what I say and what I claim to be without doubting my intentions, or without them seeing anything hypocritical about me. I must remember that God knows EVERYTHING about me – my thoughts, my actions, my words and even my intentions, so I can’t hide anything from Him.

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Lord, may I follow You with integrity and godliness. May I be honestly dedicated to serving You in everything I say, do and even think. May You find holiness and godliness in everything that I am about. May others see these characteristics in me and want to know the Savior that grants me the strength, wisdom and power to accomplish such traits. May You be honored and glorified through me today, is my sincere prayer!

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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