The Temple – My Heart
I am sometimes amazed to read of the Temple of the Old Testament and how the Lord loved certain details. He gave very specific instructions about how it was to be constructed and decorated. He even accessorized each part of the structure. This was His earthly dwelling place among His people. That was before Jesus.
When Jesus came, the Lord’s dwelling place was now inside our hearts. The Lord no longer dwells in temples made with hands but He dwells in our hearts and souls – a product of His Creative Hands. There was a verse in Haggai about the new temple that the people were building and I couldn’t help but think of how this could describe my heart. Check this out….
6 “This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: ‘In a short time I will once again shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all the nations, and they will bring their wealth. Then I will fill this Temple with glory,’ says the Lord All-Powerful. 8 ‘The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,’ says the Lord All-Powerful. 9 ‘The new Temple will be greater than the one before,’ says the Lord All-Powerful. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord All-Powerful.” (Haggai 2:6-9 NCV)The Lord can shape the Temple of My Heart into something stunning and beautiful! He created me to bring honor to Himself. He gives me peace when I’m surrendered to Him. This passage in Haggai reminded me of a passage in 2 Corinthians where Paul was speaking about our body being vessels used by God for His glory. Check this out…
7 We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows that the great power is from God, not from us. 8 We have troubles all around us, but we are not defeated. We do not know what to do, but we do not give up the hope of living. 9 We are persecuted, but God does not leave us. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed.
16 So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. 17 We have small troubles for a while now, but they are helping us gain an eternal glory that is much greater than the troubles. 18 We set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time, but what we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:7-9; 16-18 NCV)The Lord wants to make my heart His home. It is up to me to surrender my heart to Him, He will even help me clean up my heart and make room for Him. If I will surrender and start the process, He can make something incredible out of me because He dwells in me. It will take me a minute to wrap my head around all of this!
Pressing On! Dwayne