The Basin of the Temple

Today in my reading I have been looking at the description of the temple. I am amazed at the simple elements of it and its focus.

Lord, you have reminded me today the importance of being clean, clean, clean before You. I remember that Petra song that spoke of this and the importance of God seeing me as clean. Today I have been studying the Temple that Solomon built and today I have been focused on the bronze basin that was in front of the temple as a basin to purify and make clean the priests prior to entering into the presence of God. Lord, this makes me think of our practices to hurry up and wash our hands or wash ourselves so as to begin the day, to present ourselves for work. But this act of cleaning is important and vital to our lives. It is often what makes us healthy as we was off the impurities. I think of the addition of soap that helped us even further be clean and yet there are other products like Norwex towels that focus on the article that is doing the cleaning. We need our windshields of our car to be cleaned off so we can see properly. 

God, in this day and age in which we have soap and washing machines and all of these devices to help us be clean each day, I wonder if the time we take each day to clean ourselves has become less of a practice for us in our lives. Do we take this act for granted? Do I realize still the importance? And yet I don't think the idea is to be spotless but it is to make an effort. I immediately think of our worship services God and how we show up and just start singing. We often do not prepare ourselves, but just run into the process of singing and listening. Yesterday, the pastor made a comment - stop and evaluate. That phrase made an impression on me and made me wonder how often I stop and evaluate. I spoke to Blair afterwards and God he realized something in his life that he needs to stop doing due to his age. 

God, how am I making myself clean before You? Am I taking the time to do this or am I in a rush simply in order to get onto to the next big thing? Lord, I thank you for this morning time to spend with You, to read and study Your words, to think about my day and to prepare myself for the road ahead of me. I stop now and evaluate me and You and see that I want my life to be different. I want to be ready for what is next. Help me God to organize my days and times. Help me to prioritize what is most important. I won't have time for everything. I won't. So what is it that I need to do? How should I prioritize my time? Show me God. And help me to take time and make it important to be ready, be prepared. 

O God, I've experienced your goodness. It's filled me up but I want more. I"m painfully aware that I don't deserve even a glance from You and at the same time sickened that I don't always want to know and praise and love you. O Father-Son-Spirit, I want to want every particle of me to cry for you. (Tozer)

I am pressing on God. 

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