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Daily Devotion: 1 Chronicles 29:18-19

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1 Chronicles 29:18-19    "O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:  (19)  And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for the which I have made provision."

This prayer of David is a wonderful study on the subject of prayer.  He followed the pattern that Jesus would give to His disciples.  His heart was humbled and also filled with joy and gladness. He praised the Lord for His goodness in blessing him to be able to give of his material goods. He praised the Lord for blessing the people with a willing heart to also give of their material things. He saw God's glory manifested in the hearts of the people. To say it was a glorious day would almost be an understatement.  David also asked the Lord to continue to bless the people as the work continued and would ultimately be finished.  Lord, please "keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee."  Today, I include his prayer for Solomon: Lord, please "give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for the which I have made provision."  We have talked about the word, perfect, but I remind myself this morning that David was asking the Lord to give Solomon a mature heart because the work was an awesome task.

I realize I wrote about this yesterday but, unless I am alone in this action, it is all too easy for God's people to lose focus on our purpose in life.  We also need a mature heart in realizing that living our lives for Jesus is the utmost important purpose that has been given to us.  If we have learned anything through the study of God's Word, we realize that human nature can be a very self-centered nature and requires constant attention that we not fall into that trap.  Mature focus is needed for each day. David's focus in the prayer was to publicly glorify the Lord and at the same time to show the people their intent should be the same. Lord, please "keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee." And Lord, please give us "... a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all these things."

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