My granddaughter and I had a whole lot of errands to take care of yesterday. In one town, there are these huge houses. They are actually old mining houses that use to house 2 or more families. The homes have been renovated to house 1 family. They are impressive and owning one is a temptation as they are relatively inexpensive for the amount of footage. She was really excited about the possibility of one day living in a house the size of some of them. Then we talked about the job market in the area which at the present time is about nil. We talked about if she would really like to live in a large town with neighbors on every side or out in the country or in the woods. She thought neighbors aren't so bad when you can live in houses like that, but she also likes her privacy. So the temptation of a huge house, at least in that town, disappeared for her.
Did you notice in the reading today that Solomon's palace is larger than the temple? And... it took much longer to build the palace than the temple? Priorities! I guess if you're king, you can live any where you want and you can order anyone you want to build anything you want. It's notable that Solomon directed the building of the temple. But, I personally would think that if our focus is truley on serving God, we would spend more time and energy building up God's temple rather than our own.
Where is our priority? Is it in building up the Body of Christ, the temple of God which will last eternally? Or... is it in building up our own little palaces that will rot and blow away with the wind? Yes, we need shelter. We need homes to live in and to serve from. But, how do we balance what we do for our own selves (not our needs, but wants) and what we do to glorify God?
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be." (Matt 6:21 and Luke 12:34)
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