Pray and Obey

Praying Through the Bible #21 | with Daniel Whyte III

TEXT: 1 Kings 9:1-9

Everyone likes to receive blessings from God in answer to our prayers. We like to receive blessings with no strings attached. However, as we will see in our passage today, there are some conditions that we as humans must meet if God is going to bless us; and there are also consequences that will be suffered if we do not meet those conditions.

The passage which we have read today tells us of the time after King Solomon had fulfilled his father's wishes and had built the glorious Temple in Jerusalem. As you might recall, if you have listened to previous messages in this series, Solomon held a great celebration and invited all of Israel to come together to mark the completion of the Temple and to dedicate it to God. On that occasion, he offered a long prayer to God expressing his desire for God to accept the Temple as his own "house" where his presence would reside with the children of Israel. Solomon also requested that God would hear and answer the prayers of the children of Israel that were directed towards the Temple.

Today, we will see how God answers Solomon's prayer.