Devoted, but on what terms?

I’m still in 1 Chronicles: reading for meat not miles… What are you devoted too? On who’s terms are you devoted to it?  These two questions reveal a lot about who you are. It reveals even more who’s you are. David had begun preparing for a temple that his son would build. Following appointing his son to build it he charged him to do this:

1 Chronicles 22: 19Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the LORD your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the LORD God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the LORD.”

What’s required for building a church where God will reside? Let’s expand it to what is required for building ourselves up as the temple that the Holy Spirit resides in? 

Solution- Devotion to Seeking the Lord. It is not seeking fame, seeking to be big, seeking to be popular, or even seeking to try to do it on your own…  Building a glorious temple that the Lord wants to reside in takes absolute devotion to Him first. It may take longer to build it as in David’s case it took multiple generations to get there, but you get there on God’s terms and not your own. 

I’m not saying a Christ follower can’t be popular, or a church can’t be big, but it isn’t to be what you seek with devotion either. You can find almost anything if you are devoted to seeking after it, but if you won’t truly build the temple as it should be if you don’t devote your life to seeking God first, you risk building a hollow temple with just a lot of bells and whistles that reveal a monument to your emptiness. Today, decide to devote your life to seeing Christ as your Lord and Saviour with all your heart and soul. It’s not too late!

When we devote our heart to seeking God those things you could treasure by them selves can be found too. Matthew 6:33 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. What I love about what I do is I get to lead a church to grow into a biblical functioning, biblically literate community of God where we seek God first. Where people realize that the church is more than self help shop, it’s  The results we just leave up to him. So rather than model my life or church by a how to book or by what another church is doing, I’ve found if you simply follow God’s model God’s terms always work out better than my own.