Thursday, June 23 – Acts 7:46-50

“David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for Him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:

 

‘Heaven is My throne,
And the earth is the footstool of My feet;
What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord,
‘Or what place is there for My rest?
Was it not My hand that made all these things?’”

There is a children’s song that goes “My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty. There’s nothing my God cannot do.” This song has been sung for many years to children to remind them that God is much greater than we often give Him credit for. Our tendency is to view God in the confines of what makes sense to us. For the Pharisees, it was the temple and the Old Testament law, but God was never confined by those things. Stephen pointed out that Solomon built the temple for God, but it was never going to confine God.

It is easier than we want to admit to fall into the temptation of the Pharisees. If God was confined to the temple and the law, the Pharisees could control Him. Admitting God was greater than those things meant stepping into a place where they would not have the influence or authority to dictate as they wanted. When we serve in a non-visible way or love someone even though they don’t deserve it, we don’t get the credit we want. We may never see the fruit of our actions. But as we walk humbly with God, He shows us how our faith is much more than the commands He has given or the church He has blessed us with. He desires to take us deeper in our relationship with Him and bring others to Himself through His Holy Spirit in us.

Our faith must be built on the solid rock, Christ, our Cornerstone. So many along the way have been tripped up because they wanted control or power over their lives. They did not surrender to God or recognize their own sin. We should be warned of the danger in living like the Pharisees so that we walk humbly with Christ, trusting that He is greater than we can control or conceive.

• Why is our nature to want control, even in our faith?
• How have you seen God redeem a situation you could not control?
• Pray and thank God that He is bigger than the boxes we try to put Him in.