“David said to Solomon, ‘My son, I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the Lord my God.’” – 1 Chronicles 22:7
David absolutely loved God!!! He loved God so much he wanted to build a wonderful temple for Him. That certainly sounds like a great idea God would want to endorse. David’s desire was to bring glory to God by building a magnificent place for people to come and worship from all over the world. This is a good desire. You’d expect God to give David, the man after His own heart, the green light. He didn’t. God said, “No”. David wasn’t allowed to build God’s temple. His son Solomon would be the temple builder. God wanted His temple built by a man of peace rather than a man of war.
God didn’t reject David or his idea. He merely rejected the timing (for the rest of David’s life). How would you respond to God saying “No” to an idea you were so excited about it??? Would you be crushed and disappointed? Frustrated? Angry? Offended? Would you charge ahead anyway? Would you give up on God altogether? David teaches us how to handle disappointing situations where God’s timing is radically different from ours. Rather than be upset or stubborn, David devoted the rest of his life to preparing Israel and Solomon to build the temple after David’s death. He collected mountains of building materials, put people and plans in place, and mentored his son. David took God’s denial seriously and did everything he could to make Solomon successful in his place and to bring maximum to glory to God through the temple.
Most of us get excited when we have a good idea to honor or serve God. We ask God to rubber stamp our plans and bless them as we charge ahead. Sometimes God says “No” and we need to listen for that and obey Him. We need to be like David and keep a positive attitude, even when God stops us in our tracks and says we’ll never see those plans come to fruition in our lifetime. In those cases, we must stay focused on God rather than ourselves. We need to see whom we can invest in preparing while we glorify God in every aspect of our waiting. #FollowJesus