Spend time in prayer and silence with God asking Him to meet with you and speak to you.
Bible Reading
After these things had been done, the leaders came to me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from their neighboring peoples with their detestable practices…they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have lead the way in this unfaithfulness.” When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat their appalled until the evening sacrifice.
– Ezra 9:1-4
Devotion
After arriving in Jerusalem, Ezra soon realized the severity of the spiritual state of the nation. The exiles had rejected God’s Word and had assimilated into the Babylonian culture. Ezra was so stirred with righteous indignation that he tore his garments and plucked off his beard. Ezra then would pray a deep prayer of confession and repentance for himself and for the nation. He would then call God’s people back to obedience and a deeper reverence of God’s Word.
The Big Question
It is one thing to have a temple (a physical place of worship). It is another thing to walk in obedience to the Words of God, to allow your heart to be the “temple” in which He lives and reigns. What specific steps of obedience/change is God calling you to right now?
Conclude your time in prayer and silence reflecting on what God revealed to you today.