May God dwell in our lives!

1 Kings 8 is Solomon's prayer of dedication to the Lord. This - again - really spoke to me. Solomon followed the plans God had given for the building of the temple - in excellence he paid attention to the detail that God laid down and Solomon knew that he had build the temple in the right way - in the way the God wanted him to. Yet we notice that he still asks God to come and dwell in the temple. For a moment one may wonder why he bothered to do that when wasn't it the express purpose of building the temple that God may dwell in it? And did not God instruct as to exactly how He wanted the temple to be built? One might draw the conclusion that since God did all this - He would surely dwell in His temple. It was built for Him. He had instructed that it be built for Him. Why did Solomon need to ask Him to dwell in it? The answer to this lies in the way that Solomon performed this task entrusted into his hands by God. Solomon asked for wisdom, and that wisdom manifests itself here. In wisdom Solomon made no deviations from or alterations to the exacting plan that God had given for the building of His temple. He built the temple - and upon its completion, in wisdom He dedicated it to God. He asked God to bless His plans, the outworking of His plans, and dwell in the Temple! God's presence came like a cloud. Awesome.

Therefore, whatever we are building, it has already been established that we should build it according to God's plan (paying attention to the detail!) but we should also follow Solomon's example in this and ask God to bless what He has told us to do - ask God to dwell in what we are doing for Him. In that way, He is doing it through us and the focus shifts from what we do for Him, to what He does through us.