The God Storyनमुना

Eternal Legacy

Father God, what I know of You will only ever be a fraction of who You are. Jesus, open my mind to see You and understand the Scriptures. Spirit, move my heart from familiar to fascinated until it is set ablaze with Your unfailing love.

Read: Psalm 25:14-15

Under David’s leadership, the nation of Israel prospered. After many victorious battles, God had given him rest. David established Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and positioned the Ark of the Covenant at the centre of the nation’s civic and religious life. But all of this was not enough. David wanted to build a permanent house for God.

Read: 2 Samuel 7:8-14

David wants to build a temple for God. God however does not seem particularly interested. The ark of the covenant, which had represented the place of God’s manifest presence on the earth, articulated God’s mobility and freedom. A building would limit the Israelites’ imagination of a God who was wild and free, deceiving them into thinking God could somehow be contained in one place.

Father, I ask You to forgive me for the ways I can seek to contain You. I ask You to help me surrender to the infinite mystery of who You are, and in doing so fall into Your loving embrace.

Pause and pray

Father, I pray for my church leaders as they make decisions about buildings, operational processes, and budgets. Give them humble hearts to know what true success in the kingdom really looks like, and wisdom to design structures that serve the movement of Your Spirit.

Pause and pray

The prophet Nathan reveals how God was much less interested in David’s idea to build Him a temple than He was in the holy ambition for the presence of God burning in David’s heart. Breathtakingly, God’s response is to flip David’s request on its head. His desire had been to build a home for God. But now God says ‘David, I am going to build a home for you! Forever!’

David was not perfect but, at this point in his life, the purity of his heart’s desire to dwell close to God elicited a stunning act of lavish grace from the throne of heaven. From this point on, God would bind His covenantal purposes for humanity to David’s life and legacy.

Father, today I yield my whole being to You as a temple of the living God. As I give You my heart, wholly available and at one with Yours, I live in the grace-filled reality that I can never out-give You. Making my heart Your home will be my greatest legacy.

Amen.