June 26 – One day with You

Certainly spending just one day in your temple courts is better than spending a thousand elsewhere. I would rather stand at the entrance to the temple of my God than live in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. The Lord bestows favor and honor; he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity.  (Psalm 84:10,11  NET)

This is not the attitude of most people in the world. Driving to church on Sunday morning is a breeze because there are no cars on the road. The golf courses are full on Sundays, as early as 6am. Bars and nightclubs are filled to overflowing on Saturday nights, as are cinemas, with people spending hours on end drinking or being entertained, but suggest that these same people spend one and a half hours in God’s House on Sunday morning and you will hear laughs, groans, and complaints. These people might think they’re living the good life, but in reality they’re rejecting the one place that can give them everything they need.

The person who wrote these words had experienced the presence of God and had traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem, and had found that the journey was well worth every sacrifice to get there. A thousand days anywhere else did not come close to equaling one day in the courts of God’s Temple — that’s two years and nine months compared to one day! I wonder if we would make that same choice… thirty-three months indulging our flesh compared to one day in the church? I’m afraid most would make the wrong choice.

But God reserves special blessings for people who have the determination and courage to value His presence and His house. He gives them favor and honor, and withholds “no good thing” from them. These are extraordinary blessings. Some people live their whole lives and feel that they’ve never experienced the favor of God, but here God promises an entire life of His favor and honor. Why would anyone reject that for the life of the world?

We need to re-examine our attitude towards the House of God. Sunday mornings, and even several more days during the week (Wednesday night, Friday night) should be sacred and untouchable for us. If we put God first and everything else after that, how different our lives would be.