God's Temple

1Kings 8:27-29  "But will God really dwell on earth?  The
heavens, even the highest heavens, can not contrain You.  How much less this temple I have built!  Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God.  Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in Your presence this day.  May Your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which You said, "My
Name shall be there," so that You will hear the prayer your servant prays,toward this place.
 
1Corinthians 3:16-17  Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?  If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred and you are God's temple.

(2Corinthians 6:16)
For we are the temple of the living God....

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As we enter this new year, we tend to make resolutions to lose weight, break bad habits, etc.  (I have a very poor track record).  We look on this as a clean slate, an opportunity to start over.  

God did that for us when Christ wiped clean the slate of sin in our lives and came to dwell within us.  We became the temple of the Holy God, our Creator and redeemer.  He dwells in our hearts and minds and lives.  He is in every part of our day, even the parts we try to keep separate from Him.  He knows our tears, joys, hopes and dreams.  He has a specific and unique plan for each of us.  He has given us unique talents to fullfill the assignment He is laying out before us a little bit at a time.   

He is asking us to care for and protect the temple that He inhabits.  We can care for His temple emotionally, physically, spiritually by inviting Him into all areas of our lives so that He can cleanse that temple and keep it holy, for He is holy.
 
This is a New Year's resolution that will be one of the toughest, most exciting and challenging you have ever attempted.  But this one will be the one with eternal benefits.  There is no greater joy than when we are walking
the path that leads to the City of Gold, the new Jerusalem, the throne of the living God.