Monday, May 12, 2025

Proclaiming His Love Far and Wide

Solomon spread out his hands toward heaven and said: “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.” [1]

The God of Israel is God alone. He keeps covenant. In today’s vernacular we say, “Promises made promises kept.”

Every person that has ever lived as needed His mercy. God has never needed ours. He will still be around long after this current heaven and earth have been replaced by the new ones.

Though Solomon was exceedingly rich, he knew that he needed the Lord to hear his prayers so he said to the Lord, “ Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today... when You hear, forgive.” [2]

Next, Solomon described future catastrophes that would come upon his nation, and asked God to hear the prayers and forgive the sins of those future generations when they turned back to Him, confessed His Name and made supplication to Him.

When defeated before enemies! When without rain! When famine! When foreigners come to Jerusalem to pray to Him! When soldiers cry out to Him amidst battles! When captives in foreign lands! [3]

He said with a loud voice to the assembled people of his nation, “Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day.” [4]

A nation’s collective blessing or demise is contingent on a love relationship with the Lord. Solomon’s father David believed and professed this truth. He wrote, “Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.” [5]

God giving His angels to watch over us is His mercy. A mercy especially granted to those who take refuge in Him! To take refuge in Him is to be close to Him. To be in Him. To be in Christ by being filled with the indwelling Holy Spirit.

“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My Name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.” [6]

God desires a love relationship with you. In a love relationship with the Lord you reap the benefits of that relationship, such as honor from the Lord, help from the Lord, satisfaction from the Lord, and salvation by the Lord.

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your Name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night.” [7]

Thanking, singing, proclaiming God’s goodness, His lovingkindness and His faithfulness! How? These are the overflows of a love relationship with the Lord.

The Apostle Paul expressed His love for God by preaching the Gospel of Christ’s redeeming love far and wide. “In mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ. And so I have made it my aim to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation.” [8]

“Dear Heavenly Father, please help us Your people to serve and honor You with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength that peoples of every nation might know of how You sent Your Son to be the sacrifice to remove their sins before You and to open the way for Your Holy Spirit to dwell in them. May Your Word run very quickly throughout the earth, and may You bless us to be the ones who get to proclaim it far and wide. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen!”

[1] 1 Kings 8:22-23
[2] 1 Kings 8:28, 30
[3] 1 Kings 8:33-53
[4] 1 Kings 8:61
[5] Psalm 91:9-11
[6] Psalm 91:14-16
[7] Psalm 92:1-2
[8] Romans 15:19-20

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