ERCC DEVOTIONAL (TEKAN) DAILY SPIRITUAL DIET TUESDAY 8TH AUGUST, 2023

TEXT: 1 KINGS 9: 1-9

SPIRITUAL FOCUS: GOD LOVES THOSE WHO OBEY HIM .

In yesterday's study we heard that the Lord is not unreasonable, and He prefers to be obeyed rather than to be given sacrifices. All the prophets we read about in the Bible today are men who obeyed the Lord God. 

In the reading, after King Solomon completed the building, the Lord appeared to him again in a dream because he wanted to reaffirm the promise, he had made to him before he ascended the throne. In the dream he reiterates the promise but with conditions. That is, if Solomon obeys Him and keeps His precepts as his father David did, He will be with him. 

And if he commits sins and asks for forgiveness, he will be forgiven. This promise applies to us today. It is a warning that should not be taken lightly. The promise of forgiveness should not be an opportunity for us to continue living in deliberate sin because we know if we repent the Lord will forgive us. No, intentional sin is unacceptable to the Lord. 

But if we sin onwilfully, let us come to Him in repentance, and the Lord will have mercy on us and forgive us. We know that whoever covers his sins will not be blessed. But the one who confesses them and forsakes them will receive the mercy of the Lord (Proverbs 28:13). Brother, what is preventing you from repenting today to receive the Lord's mercy?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: God forgives abundantly.

PRAYER: Lord God, I beg You to give me the spirit of obedience to You and genuine repentance in the name of Jesus, Amen.

              1 Kings 9: 1-9 (NLT).

 

1 The Lord’s Response to Solomon

So Solomon finished building the Temple of the Lord, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do.

2 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had done before at Gibeon.

3 The Lord said to him,

“I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holythis place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart.

4 “As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations,

5 then I will establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever. For I made this promise to your father, David: ‘One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of Israel.’

6 “But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods,

7 then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations.

8 And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads in amazement. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’

9 “And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why the Lord has brought all these disasters on them.’”