By: Tesia Nagorka
“‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that?’ asks the Lord. ‘Could you build me such a resting place? Didn’t my hands make both heaven and earth?'” – Acts 7:49-50, Isa 66:1-2
I was reading this verse the other day and was struck with the imagery of God being throned upon the heavens – wow. The glory of God is just too vast for us to fathom. When you think about it, it’s a rather absurd and funny idea to build God a building to live in. The building itself would be like a tiny little box compared to Him!
God emphasizes this point several times throughout His word. The declaration is found in the book of Isaiah, alluded to in 2 Samuel in God’s response to King David’s request to build Him a temple, then pointed to again in Acts when Stephen recounts the long line of Israel’s stubborn ancestry to religious leaders and revealing they too are resisting God by trying to make things happen by their own hand. All this serves to show us that trying to control things – working in our own understanding and our own efforts – is essentially the same as trying to fit the God of all creation into a tiny box. Sometimes we may even mean well, but are still thinking far too small.
Let go of control. Let go of trying to make things happen the way you want them to. Let go, and look to God to lead you. He will. He already has a plan and a purpose, and I assure you it’s far better than what you could think up on your own.
We could stop there, and that would be a great lesson for the week. But there’s something even deeper if you search a little further (there always is with God).
You see, God does desire to have a dwelling place.
It’s not a place we thought up and suggested to Him. No, it’s His thought and design. It’s His desired temple. And to Him, it’s comparable to the glory of heaven.
Our hearts!
That’s all through his Word as well. Take a look, and stand in awe and wonder at the God who designed you for such a relationship with Him:
“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” – 1 Corinthians 3:16
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.’” – John 14:23
“Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” – 2 Timothy 1:14
“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,” – Ephesians 3:17
“to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” – Colossians 1:27