Leave Your Sledgehammers Home!

1 Cor 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

Ephesians 2:21-22 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

What an amazing thought that a holy and infinite God dwells within our bodies when we come to faith! This awesome God so desires to inhabit our very beings ... wow!

Now imagine how that God is constructing this magnificent temple of living stones, believers around the world, and fitting us together into a masterpiece; stones of every color, every size, and differing weight, and fitting them TIGHTLY and perfectly together for His glory!

Imagine walking into a glorious Temple, a visual masterpiece exemplifying His temple of Living stones…and gazing at the splendor of gold, silver and precious gems … imagine the awe of the beauty you're taking in!

Now brace yourself and imagine a person entering this glorious place, taking a sledgehammer and smashing the walls ... hitting every stone ... doing all he can to desecrate and destroy all this wonder and beauty … you'd say it's the height of insanity, a massive blasphemy against the magnificent work of the Creator!

But how often do we ourselves as His body pick up our hammers, big and small, and do this destructive work?

There is a proverb of Solomon – “Life and death are in the power of the tongue”. Our tongues can become "hammers" of destruction and death to His precious children, His Holy Bride. in the Temple of God, His Body.

Words can build up … and sadly, can also destroy!

Use words, not as hammers of destruction, but as skillful building tools inspired by the Holy Spirit to build one another up … polishing each and every precious stone in God's Temple. Our Lord is a builder, the Living Word who says, "Let there be! And it IS! …so let us also be aware before we open our mouths to speak, as we will be judged for every idle word! We have the words of life to speak into anyone's life today. And "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." [Proverbs 25:11]

Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy Devotions. This devotional was originally published on Worthy Devotions and was reproduced with permission.

How to display the above article within the Worthy Suite WordPress Plugin.

[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]

Did you know that when a bone is broken and then heals, that previously broken place becomes the strongest part of the bone? What an amazing thing!

In a traditional Jewish marriage, a contract known as the 'ketubah',(which means 'that which is written', in Hebrew) is signed be both the bride and groom. Originally, it included the price of the bride, the promises that the groom must keep and the rights to which the bride is entitled.

We've been receiving dozens of emails lately from people who are really feeling the pressure, and who have expressed gratitude and appreciation for our devotions over the last few days. Reading through some of the replies, my initial thought was – wow, God is creating some magnificent diamonds!

A disgruntled church-goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained: "I've gone to church for thirty years now, and in that time I have heard something like three-thousand sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. I think I'm wasting my time and the Pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

One of my favorite heroes of the faith is Hudson Taylor. For those who are unfamiliar with him, Hudson Taylor led a great awakening in China which continues to this day.

Did you know that on a rocket's journey, the most force is exerted at its lift-off? The amount of force that is needed to get that rocket off the ground is so fierce that it could easily blow the whole thing to pieces. Interestingly though, the further the rocket moves from the earth's gravitational pull, the less energy it needs to move farther along.

My wife and I are both big Keith Green fans. He sang a great song about the children of Israel in the wilderness complaining to Moses that they "Wannna go back to Egypt".