GOOD INTENTIONS

PROCLAMATION

“I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of The Lord my God, as The Lord told my father David, when He said, ‘Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for My Name.’”  1 Kings 5:5 (NIV)

EXPLANATION

In response to a message that he received from envoys of Hiram king of Tyre, who was a friend of King David, King Solomon said, because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could not build a temple for the Name of The Lord his God.  But now The Lord my God has given me rest on every side from wars and I intend to build a temple for the Name of The Lord my God. (1 Kings 5:1-5)  King Solomon verbalized his good intentions and then immediately began taking actions to implement them.

APPLICATION

All too often we do not follow through with our thoughtful good intentions.  We get side-tracked and our good intentions never come to fruition.  We do not act upon them and the delay leads to a failure to accomplish them.  It is not good enough for us to think good thoughts if we never put them into actions and transform them from thoughts to reality.  And on the other side of the coin, there are the times when we say or do the right thing, but our intentions and motives are less than honorable.  The world sees our actions and behavior, but The Lord God also see our hearts and knows our thoughts. (Psalm 44:21 and 94:11)  In this case our thoughts reflect who we really are. (Proverbs 23:7)  We need to pray for God to help us to act on our good intentions, and to create within us a clean heart, mind, and spirit to eliminate sinful thoughts. (Psalm 51:10)  We don’t want to end up on that proverbial road to hell that is paved with good intentions.