Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: 1 Kings 9 and Psalm 109

“The Lord appeared to him a second time.” (1 Kings 9:2)

The first time the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, he had asked for wisdom and had received much more. Now, 20 years later, Solomon had “completed the work of building the temple and the royal palace and had achieved all that he desired to do.” And the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time.

Solomon was at a dangerous point because his great work was completed and he had come to the end of his vision. For twenty years he had woken up every day driven by the desire to build the temple and his royal palace, and to see them in all their splendour. Now that day had come and gone, what was there to get up for? A driven man like Solomon would throw himself into something, and at this point there was no guarantee that it would be the right thing. So, in his grace, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time.

In this second visitation, the Lord gave Solomon a dream worth living for. God called Solomon to “walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws.” Remember that in the first visitation God promised Solomon the wisdom to know what the right thing was to do in every circumstance (i.e. wisdom). Solomon had applied that wisdom to the task of building a great temple to the glory of God, but now the Lord gave him a call that amounted to building a great life to the glory of God.

This is God’s call on our lives too. God does not dwell in buildings. However, miraculously, God has chosen to dwell in the lives of Christian believers. Today, God invites us to focus all of our energy and attention on building our lives on the foundations of integrity of heart, uprightness and obedience to God’s will and ways. Now THAT is a building project worth living for.

Heavenly Father, please grant me the grace to pursue Your will and Your ways with uprigthness and integrity of heart today. Holy Spirit, please empower me to build my life into a temple in which my Lord delights to dwell. In Jesus’ Name. Amen