"Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD.”
— 1 CHRONICLES 22:19 KJV
Why do we sin? Sometimes we don’t know right from wrong. But more often we err because we lack the strength to choose right over wrong. The mind is knowledgable but the will is weak. What we lack is not understanding, but dedication.
The Latin root of the word “dedication” originally meant to consecrate and set apart. It primarily referred to the act of proclaiming something as sacred: as exclusively devoted to a special and holy purpose. For example, the Temple of Solomon was dedicated as a sanctuary for the Ark of the Covenant: the vessel that held the Ten Commandments.
Saint Paul counseled Christians to think of themselves—not only their bodies, but their spirits—as temples. Just as God’s written law dwelled in the Temple of Solomon, the Holy Spirit dwells in each of us.
And just as a temple can be consecrated, through prayer we can consecrate our very being as a sacred vessel of the Holy Spirit devoted exclusively to God. “Dedication” in this sense of self-consecration can help us attain “dedication” in the sense of self-discipline. Giving ourselves wholly over to the Most High can purify ourselves of attachment (i.e., bondage, enslavement) to our whims and base desires: the temptations that lead us astray.
This is a form of total surrender that leads toward total freedom, however paradoxical as that may sound. The more we surrender ourselves to God, the more we free ourselves from sin and its torments and receive the fruits of righteousness, including peace, joy, and agency.
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19-20 KJV