“When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, ‘For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.’” - 2 Chronicles 7:3

Solomon dedicates his newly constructed temple with a prayer of blessing and thanksgiving to God who in turn responds by presenting his presence and appreciation by means of fire from heaven. Now imagine you are standing there among the crowd of Israelites when that happened. How would you respond?

Yeah, me too. I’d fall on my face so fast I might throw my back out in the process. The people who were there began to shout out praise to God proclaiming the eternal value of his love. Too bad they couldn’t say the same thing about their dedication to their worship to Him. As you can probably imagine, it would not be too long before they had all forgotten about this day and yet again allowed the temptations of the flesh to prevail.

Not to defend their actions, but I can relate to that. How many times have I been taught a lesson just to forget it and make the same mistake again? Too many to count. Even life-changing, monumental moments that compounded conviction with desire to be become more disciplined have been set aside or forgotten in times of laziness, apathy, or peer pressure.

The good news is God Doesn’t give up or forget like we do. He keeps trying. He continues to reach out and reveal Himself to His people. Far be it from me to understand why he would continue to wrestle with a bunch of ungrateful, forgetful, no-good hypocrites, but “His steadfast love endures forever” even when ours does not.

Just a few lines later in this chapter is the popular verse 2 Chronicles 7:14 which reminds us if we will just look to God, and continue to seek Him first, we will see He is always there for us. We are a pathetic people and we need constant reminders. God could pour out fire from the sky everyday but it still wouldn’t be enough to keep our hearts and minds right. Eventually we would get used to it and forget all over again. The cure is a consistent pattern of worship every day is every aspect and element of our daily lives. God has revealed His glory. It is our responsibility to remember.