You are the temple of the living God!

"What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."" -2 Corinthians 6:16
As I was reading this morning in 2 Corinthians, I was struck by this phrase, "You are the temple of the living God."  I actually got stuck on that phrase, I wanted to move on and keep reading, but this concept enthralled me.

Think about it. Have you ever seen the Old Testament Temple, or at least what they thought it looked like??? It was incredible! It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world! It's hard to really get a feel for how big and massive and incredible this temple was.  One thing sticks out to me though. Just one of the lower foundation stones that they found was 570 tons. It's interesting because this could have been the stone that the disciples were referring to in Mark 13:1-2.

This is the building that we are compared to. If God chose to dwell in such a magnificent building for such a long period of time, what does it say about us that He chooses to dwell in us now?

Another thought also came to mind though, while we are feeling so privileged, we should remember what happened with the temple in the Old Testament. When it was first built, everyone was in awe! It was magnificent and incredible! But later, as the you read the accounts of the kings, you find that they started to lose their awe and wonder of the temple. They begin to neglect the Temple and it falls into disrepair. They also even set up idols, and allow prostitution to go on in the Temple! Can you believe that? This amazing building dedicated to the worship of the God that had brought them out of slavery?  The God that had saved them time and time again from disasters and enemies and all sorts of things, and they chose to defile His temple!

My point is this. How many times do you and I allow idols into our hearts?  Into the temple of God? How many times do we prostitute ourselves to the world and the things of the world? Or maybe we just ignore it. We just ignore our relationship with God and allow the state of our heart to fall into spiritual disrepair. How could we choose to let this happen?  God saved our life! God redeemed us at incredible cost to Himself and his only Son! How could we do this to the temple that was supposed to be dedicated to the worship of God? You and I are supposed to be dedicated solely to the worship of God! Not to other things in this world that catch our attention and fancy.

I need to remember this just as much as anyone else!  My prayer to God is that I will never lose my sense of awe that the very God of the universe would dwell within me and with me. My heart will always be dedicated solely to the worship of the one who saved my life and chose to come and make my heart is home!