Neglecting the Temple

Nehemiah 13:11 I immediately confronted the leaders and demanded, “Why has the Temple of God been neglected?” Then I called all the Levites back again and restored them to their proper duties. The temple of God in Nehemiah's day was a building served by Levites. Today the temple of God is every body of every believer. After the walls had been rebuilt, and the gates repaired, Nehemiah turned his focus to the temple because it had been neglected. We too can be guilty of neglecting God's temple. If we aren't careful, we will work work work, without accomplishing the most important thing....intimacy with our Lord. How much better would our days be if we first focused on His temple! It is a privilege of the highest degree that the Spirit of God would make His home in my heart. I should desire to keep it clean and swept of selfishness and pride. I should be watchful for any filth, or blemishes that would not be fitting for a temple of God. This requires not weekly, but daily, and even moment by moment consideration. But during all of my well doing, and temple maintenance, I must never forget that my body wasn't declared to be God's temple because of hard work in preparing it. No, it was instantly transformed from a body of sin, into a royal dwelling, by the most precious blood of the King Himself!