The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:11-21 (day five)  

“Then David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the LORD is finished.”

I love the language David uses to encourage and empower Solomon for this great task ahead.  You must act AND God will be at work too.  It has one of the great promises that we find throughout scripture.  You will need to trust and do (act/work/disciple/baptize/teach) what God has called you to do AND God will provide His strength, wisdom, Holy encouragement, and constant presence.  It’s a beautiful partnership that believers have with the Living God. We must do what we are called and commanded to do and God does what only He can do (produce Godly fruit from our efforts).

Matthew 28 “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Philippians 2 “work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:11-21 (day four)

One of the first things you recognize in our passage is the detail of the plans that David provides to his son, Solomon.  He has a plan for everything…buildings, porches, inner rooms, upper rooms, utensils, dishes, storehouses, etc.  David had put a lot of thought into the temple.  These were not his plans though…verse 19 gives us the key.  “All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, all the details of this pattern.”  It was God who paid attention to all the detail.  Details are not surprising when God created the heavens and the earth.  Exquisite and intricate detail characterizes every creation of God.

Is it important to God that things are done correctly?  Does He give a general idea as to how something should be and leave the details up to man to figure out?  Does God, for instance, have a detailed ‘master plan’ developed for our church or does He allow us to come up with our best plans and ideas?  Sounds like we have some praying to do!

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:11-21 (day three)

“Then David gave to his son Solomon…the plan of all that he had in mind.”

David’s most painful and harmful behavioral patterns – emotional distance from his family and reckless military buildup (see the census in 1 Chronicles 21), among other things – marked a continuing cycle of spiritual distress and repeated reconciliation with God. War and blood, bodily and spiritual, permeated David’s life, and he found solace with God in between those episodes. Although the temple would be God’s dwelling, it would, in the eyes of the nation, also reflect the character of the one who would set his hand to build it. David reached a point at which he understood that. The temple required the kind of stable foundation that was foreign to his way of living. His life with God was not Solomon’s. That’s neither good nor bad. It just is.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:11-21 (day two)

Then David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished. vs. 20

I love the consistency of scripture, don’t you. The admonition to be strong and courageous sounds like the encouragement Joshua received from Moses and from God. 

Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. Joshua 1:7

These words are encouraging, yes, but also an acknowledgement that the road ahead will be filled with challenges. Just because you are called to a God-sized task does not mean that you are God. You will fail, but that does not disqualify you from your assignment. You should also remember:

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” ‭Philippians‬ ‭1:6‬ ‭

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:1-10 (day seven)  

“I had intended to build a permanent home for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God.” vs 2

How many times have you  started a sentence like this, “My intentions were good, but…”? The key here is the focus on self. “My intentions” or for David “I had intended” clearly the focus is on what the individual thought was best.  Thomas Edison once said, “A good intention, with a bad approach, often leads to a poor result.” The approach that we get in trouble for the most is not approaching the Throne and communicating with the Lord before making our decisions. In our intentions, we take all the responsibility, we take all the burden, but that is not what God intended. His intentions are that We (us and Him) plan together so He takes the burden. When we approach the Throne before following our intentions, the result will always be perfect.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:1-10 (day six)  

Solomon and his temple were both a disappointment. By the time the Chronicler was writing this history (around 400 BC), the temple was destroyed and there was no king on the throne. Nehemiah would oversee the temple’s rebuilding, and Herod the Great would see it expanded to new heights, only to be destroyed again a few decades later by the Romans.

Solomon was the first of a long line of disappointing kings, and the temple didn’t fair any better. Neither would fulfill God’s promise to David.

For God so loved the world he sent the Son… John 3:16

Jesus, the Son of David, who would forever sit on the throne and rebuild his temple in the hearts of men and women.

Promises fulfilled.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:1-10 (day five)  

“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.”

David’s time on earth is coming to a close. As he thinks back on his life and looks forward to Solomon’s reign, David wisely points his son to seek and serve the Living God. What will be the legacy advice we leave (verbally or behaviorally) to our children?  Trust me, they are watching and listening (learning) from an early age. Will it be about finances? Relationships? Work ethic? Priorities? Successes? Failures?

David charges Solomon (and us) that the best and most important legacy we can leave our children and the next generation is a vibrant faith and intimate fellowship with God.  So we all need to ask… are our children and those of the next generation learning (from what they see and hear in our lives) that faith in God is our most treasured possession?  Are we intentionally encouraging them to seek and serve God? That, is a legacy that will last through the generations.

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:1-10  (day four)

From the beginning of time, the name of the Lord had been holy.  Following man’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the birth of Seth, men began to call on the name of the Lord.  (Genesis 4:26) Following the flood and when God made His covenant with Abraham, men called upon the name of the Lord.  All through Scripture, the name of the Lord was revered and holy.  Now when David seeks to build the temple, God preserves His holy name.  His name will not be associated with the shedding of man’s blood.

Does God’s name cause you to reverence Him?  Do you prepare your heart to come into His presence?  We are not to casually or lightly approach His throne.  Care must be taken not to presume upon His grace and promises.  We are not to demand His response.  The love of God compels us to reverence His name…our God is a Holy God!

Re:Verse passage – 1 Chronicles 28:1-10 (day three)

“Now…in the hearing of our God, observe and seek after all the commandments.”

Every stab at enlightenment, every utopian dream, every attempt at higher thought has tried and failed to find a foundation besides God that will support its system of ethics or its theory of the good. One can appeal to empathy, to economics, to enterprise, to eloquence. All these and more have had their turn as the ultimate basis of a new and better way of life. And they’ve all ended up on the ash heap of history. David rightly appealed to God as the ground of all that is good. In the New Testament, Gamaliel echoed his words: “If [it] is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to stop [it].” If we haven’t learned that by now, when?