God Will Be with Us When We are Faithful, But if We Sin, He Will Depart

od knew from before the World, the fates of everyone who would ever live. In today's readings, Solomon dedicated the Temple to God and the Ark of the Covenant was placed inside it by the priests. The psalm for today also focuses on this fact, and that God entered the temple in a visible cloud as a sure sign that he was with Israel while they worshipped him as he desired. What I find noteworthy is that God would help Solomon knowing that he would go astray. Like King Saul before him, Solomon would cease from following what God commanded, and as a result of his idolatry, the kingdom of Israel was divided, and in 586 BC the Southern Kingdom that was left to Solomon's descendants fell to the Babylonians. God had promised to be with them, but only if they followed after his commands.

In terms of our prosperity and spiritual health, I believe the same is true of us today. God will be with us and help us to overcome the trials of each day, but we must be faithful towards His natural laws that He has laid down to govern the Universe. We cannot rely on his always helping us to succeed in our goals just because we are Christians. When we fail, and we are chastised by life's calamities for our unfaithfulness, however, God is always faithful to forgive while this life lasts. Sometimes even if we are faithful, as Job found out, God introduces calamity anyway. As Lent approaches, we must humble ourselves before God and receive his Grace and forgiveness--his Life-- into our lives.