Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Experience God's Joy | Historical Books | 1 Kings 8:54-66

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Do you feel valuable? What are you holding too tightly? Where does obedience come from? In today's episode, Tanya shares how 1 Kings 8:54-66 encourages us to worship and sacrifice from a sense of trust, so that we might share God's joy. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Kings 8:54-66

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. Hello, everyone. I usually just jump right into these, but before we start today, I just want to say two quick things. First, I hope we say this all the time, but thanks for listening, because I hope that you hear something here that sticks with you, something that helps you connect with God, or

encourages you to share it with someone else so they can connect with God. And second, I'm grateful for this. Being in God's word and preparing these episodes is one of the ways that God keeps me grounded and tethered to his word. My life feels really busy right now. I'm sure yours does too, but this keeps me connected to him. And I hope you have something like that too. Okay, now back to First Kings. Today we're looking at a big moment because Solomon is finished building the temple and the people of Israel are dedicating it to God.

And this is a scene full of worship and sacrifice. But it's also a powerful example of what happens when people stop clinging and they start surrendering. Now those are challenging words. We're going to talk today about submit and surrender. And I am probably the least qualified person to talk to you about both of those. But if we're honest, they're essential to the life of faith. Okay, let me start with a just small personal story. For context, I am not a hoarder.

I'm actually quick to throw things out, clothes, papers, just gadgets laying on the counter. I actually enjoy the fresh start of getting rid of stuff. but there's one category I don't toss, handwritten cards and notes, please send me one if you'd like. I keep them for years. I keep thank you notes, I keep birthday cards,

I keep anything with a message that makes me feel seen. Some of them have my dad's hand-running on them, and for me, that's reason enough. And those things remind me that I matter. They remind me that I'm loved, that I've been known and remembered. And I think that's something we all want,

to feel valuable, to hang on to what feels meaningful. It's different for all of us. For you, maybe it's something completely different. Maybe it's your time. Maybe it's your relationships. Maybe it's your sense of worth from money. Maybe it's your children.

But sometimes our desire to preserve what matters turns into something else. It can turn into control. So I want to share this quote from C.S. Lewis. In Moot Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, Nothing that you have. not given away will ever be really yours. And it kind of goes against that idea that when we have enough of something, then we'll give it away. At first glance, what Lewis says, it sounds backwards. How can giving something away make it more mine? But that's exactly the kind of upside down

logic that runs through scripture. In God's economy, the things that we offer up don't disappear. They multiply. They deepen. They grow. God transforms them. And often God is transforming us and showing us the things that we healed onto the tightest are the things that we're most likely to lose. In 1 Kings 8, Solomon gives us a picture of this truth and action. The dedication of the temple becomes more than just this event. It's a spiritual turning point and just a vivid reminder for Israel that surrender is the doorway to joy. So let's look at three things that happen in this chapter, three things that show what will

happen to us when we choose to submit and surrender to God's plans. Okay, first of all, number one, letting go of self-importance opens the door to obedience. Have you ever wanted just to be more obedient or to want to want to want to be more obedient to God's word and God's ways, but you don't really know how? Well, after Solomon finishes his prayer of dedication to the temple, he turns around and he blesses the people at the very, very end of that blessing. He says, And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord or God to live by his decrees and obey his commands. As at this time. Okay, I just couldn't get past that phrasing.

We have to stop. The little phrase, as at this time carries weight. Because it tells us that something is happening right now in the hearts of these people that reflects a genuine commitment to God's law. The people have just given years of their lives and their energy, their wealth, their labor to build something for God. And now the temple had been built, God's presence was dwelling, and Solomon sees what is happening here. There is a wholehearted obedience in the people that is born out of this surrender to God. Here's the point. Real obedience starts with a willingness to surrender. It starts with humility.

It starts with letting go of the idea that everything should revolve around us, our needs, our preferences, and our schedules. that's when we begin to seek God more clearly. That's when we begin to hear God's voice instead of our own voice running through our head. And when we see him more clearly and we're able to hear God's voice, obedience becomes not just something that's a burden to us, but a response that we want to have that we desire. It's not something we have to like muster up or try so hard to do, but it's something that begins to flow out of knowing who God really is.

So often, we struggle to find. follow God in obedience because we're still focused on proving something to ourselves. But the people in this passage had just gone through this incredible time of surrender to God to build this temple. And this was a participatory event where they were just submitted to doing this big thing as a community so that God's presence would come and dwell among them. They were stepping into something that was bigger than themselves. And that's what surrender makes possible. Okay, number two, letting go of the need for more leads to more generosity. A few verses later in the same chapter, we get this little snippet, this little detail. It says on that same day,

meaning on the same day of dedication, the king consecrated the middle part of the courtyard, because the broad's altar that stood before the Lord was too small to hold the burned offerings. Okay, what this means is that the people brought so much in their offerings to the Lord, at the temple they had just built wasn't big enough to hold it all. And that is pretty stunning. Why? Not because the people were showing off, not because they were trying to impress Solomon or each other, but because they were all in and their hearts were all in. They weren't just dedicating a building. They were pouring out in gratitude, their worship, and their trust in God. This is the kind of giving that comes from hearts that have let go striving. When we no longer

fill the need to accumulate and protect and prove we can finally give freely. When we let go of the need to have enough before we give, we can give to God what he's already given us. That's the kind of generosity that is a response to how much we've been given. Generous worship isn't about wealth or just an abundance of anything, really, time or talent. It's about a willingness. And you can have very little and still give extravagantly, or you can have a lot and still give extravagantly, or you can have a lot and still hold a lot back. The question is, are you worshipping from a place of trust? Do you believe that everything you have already belongs to God?

Because when we do giving stops feeling like a loss and it starts to feel like freedom. The third thing we see here is that surrender and sacrifice lead to joy. Those are those two words that I said are really hard. Surrender and sacrifice. Like not things that we tend to talk about a lot in our culture, but surrender and sacrifice lead to joy. But this is one of the ways that we know this, because at the end of this beautiful dedication, 1 Kings chapter 8, verse 66 says, they bless the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things the Lord had done. Okay, now I'm going to tell you that when I read that

verse, the first thought I had was, I bet they were also tired and they slept really well. Because don't you know that just pouring out yourself, your heart and your time and your talent, it just wears you out in this really great way. You're tired, you sleep well, you feel that peace and that joy. And I think that's really what we're all longing for and what we're striving for. They went home joyful. And it's not because they had received something new, but because the temple had been filled with God's presence and had affirmed that God was with them. They brought what they had and they laid it before the Lord in response. They released their resources, their schedules their control, and God met them. He met them not just in the temple, but he met them

in their hearts. And that's what God does. He takes the things that we offer, and he fills the empty space with himself. And that's where a true joy comes from. It doesn't come from the security of holding on, but from the freedom of letting go. You know this. If you've ever poured yourself out, either serving your family or your church, giving time to your community, staying up late to meet with a friend when they need you, praying for someone whenever you know they're going through a hard time and you promise that you would, you know this kind of joy. It's a surprising kind of joy that comes from being spent for something that's bigger than yourself. It's the kind of joy that is given by God. So what does First Kings 8 mean for us? Well, it teaches that joy comes from giving.

It teaches that obedience isn't born of an effort, but it's a result of surrender. It's born out of surrender. And that what we offer to God doesn't disappear, but becomes transformed into something for his glory. C.S. Lewis was right. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. So let me just leave you with two questions to sit with today. First, what are you holding on to that God may be asked. asking you to release. And what would it look like to trust that what you give to him won't be

lost or go away, but made more whole, more holy? Let's pray. God, we want joy, but we tend to chase it in all the wrong places. We think we need more time, more success, more security, but you remind us that joy comes through surrender. Thank you for giving yourself for us on the cross. Thank you. you that we can trust you with everything, our whole lives. Help us live like we trust you. Help us live like everything we have comes from you. Help us believe that what we give away in faith you transform for your good and your glory. Amen.