Are You Dedicated?

"So all the work that King Solomon had done for the house of the LORD was finished; and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and the furnishings. He put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD."

1 Kings 7:51

Isn't it wonderful when God weaves a thread through your day?  Before going to church this morning, I read this passage during my devotional time.  There was a wonderful connection between this scripture and the message I later preached, not only confirming God's Word but the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit.

As I read this passage, I considered the word "dedication."  When I thought of dedication, I though of Hannah dedicating her pre-conceived son Samuel for the LORD's use.  Though she delivered Samuel as a child for service in the tabernacle, Samuel had a choice to either serve God or rebel.  He chose to honor God with his life and became a prophet mighty in word and deed, and in honoring God honored the choice his mom made to dedicate him unto God.  I see a similarity in how King David dedicated the silver, gold, and furnishings for use in the temple Solomon would later build as king.  Though David dedicated valuable goods for the building of the temple, King Solomon had command of the gold and silver.  He chose to use them for the use designated by his father.

The definition of the Hebrew word translated "dedicated" is: "to sanctify, consecrated, dedicated, hallowed."  This led me to consider that all children of God have been dedicated for God's use in this sense, for God has sanctified us for His use.  Hebrews 13:12 reads, "Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate."  Jesus has sanctified us by His own blood, as Jude affirms through his address of all believers in Jude 1:1:  "Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ..."  As Hannah dedicated Samuel, as David sanctified the gold and silver for use in the temple, so we too have been dedicated unto the Father through the blood of Christ.

The question remains:  will we use our freedom from sin and death to dedicate ourselves unto God, or misdirect the gifts and talents He has granted us for any other purpose?  Am I resolved to lay down my will so my life will be dedicated for God's will and glory?  Both Samuel and Solomon honored God by honoring their parents through obedience, and we honor the Father through the leading of the Holy Spirit in obedience to Christ.  God did not grant us silver or gold for a temple made with hands, but the glorious presence of the Holy Spirit's presence to fill the temple of our bodies!  Praise God that He has granted the Holy Spirit in His fullness to followers of Jesus Christ!  As Paul exhorts in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:  "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."