One of the greatest blessings that we enjoy today is the opportunity to attend the temple in Africa West Area. This blessing should not be taken lightly as commended by the Saviour in Doctrine & Covenant 6:12; where we are admonished to “trifle not with sacred things”. The temple and the Holy ordinances are indeed sacred, and we should be spiritually sensitive to them. The real blessings of the temple come as we enhance our temple experience by visiting the temple regularly. Prophet Haggai charged the saints of the old in Haggai 1:4-“Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste”. This charge is actually for our days as the children of God remain in the comfort zone of their homes while allowing His Holy house to lie fallow.
We are most concerned about the hustling and bustling of this world. We are overwhelmed with what we would wear, eat and use, in fact we are concerned with things that have no eternal significance while neglecting the weightier matter. Prophet Haggai further stated “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; yea eat but have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes” – Haggai 1: 6. We worry about things that are for the Lord to fix for us. We mortgage our eternal happiness for things that have no eternal significance to us. We work all through the day and night, yet we never have sufficient for ourselves; we earn salaries from those labours of ours and still we remain in debt simply because we have placed the Lord last instead of first on our list of priorities. Haggai counsels us “to consider our ways”-Haggai 1:7.
In Revelation 7:15, Apostle John helps us to understand the frequency with which we should be in the temple for worship “…..serve Him day and night in His temple” and that we are promised that the Lord “shall dwell among us”. I acknowledge that our circumstances may not permit us to be in the temple day and night but regular temple worship might suffice.
Apostle John further opens our eyes to the Lord’s special blessings as we worship frequently in the Lord’s Holy house “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” –Rev 7:16-17. What a promise brothers and sisters to work little and earn so much; what a promise that we shall hunger no more neither thirst anymore; what a promise that as we are faced with adversities, that the Lord shall wipe away our tears.
Brothers and sisters let us strive to worship Him day and night in His temple so we can earn those promises. I testify to you that the temple is truly a house of the Lord that He resides in that Holy house, that He meets with us as we come to worship in His house in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.