PRAYING TO BE A PLACE WHERE GOD LIVES

MEETING WITH GOD

The tabernacle and the temple of the Jewish people was a meeting place for God and His people – a place where heaven and earth connected.  Meeting with people had always been God’s plan. We know from the time in the Garden of Eden when God came and walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.  That fellowship was broken by sin and Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden.

The story of God connecting with His people in the tabernacle and the temple is told in chapter after chapter in the Old Testament.  Then Jesus came and began to say some “very strange things  with a sinful woman at a well. (in John 4) They were discussing where people thought they had to be to worship God and Jesus told the woman:

Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:21, 23-24

Jesus spoke about His body being the temple of God that would be destroyed and then raised up again in three days.  We are all so grateful for that meeting place of heaven with earth when Jesus breathed His last and gave up His life for you and I and all who live on this earth.  Three days later, Jesus powerfully rose again from the grave to give clear and convincing evidence that God’s power and presence of God are again poured out for us to receive.

Amazingly, we are now meant to be those who demonstrate every day this connection between heaven and earth.  Look at this: 

Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?  … God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.  1 Corinthians 3:16-17

God’s Spirit lives in us and our lives are meant to be a place where people can sense and experience the goodness and power of God’s Spirit speaking to them, pouring out grace and truth on them.

Oh Lord, we try to wrap our minds around this thought but it’s still a bit much to understand.  Regardless of our understanding, the truth is still the truth.  When we invite You to come and live in us, Your really come and make our heart Your home.  You use all of us. You used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now You are using us, fitting us in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. Your Word says:

… built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:20-22

Oh Lord, help us today to walk well with You.  We want our lives to be safe places where others can see a good and loving God and through our witness and our prayers even come to know Him and become part of this amazing temple that You are building together that has Jesus as the cornerstone. Amen