Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.
(Ezra 6:16 NIV)
For many years, God’s people longed to build Him a place to dwell in and many times He reminded them that He could not be confined to a place. This omnipresent God would not be limited to space or time. Although His people’s desire was to honour Him with a magnificent place where they could worship Him, God knew what would happen when they attempted to build Him a physical house. And even though God eventually allowed them to build Him one, He also threatened to tear it down when they took His presence for granted. So in His anger, He allowed it to be destroyed by Israel’s enemies not once, but twice! God’s ancient people thought that they would be secure as long as they had a house for God while they continued to sin against Him. When they were exiled to a foreign land because of their rebellion and sin, they finally learned that no matter where they went, God could still be found because He was everywhere.
To this day, we continue to build places of worship because we feel that that’s where God is or should be. We put Him in a “Sunday box” where we seek Him while we go the rest of the week without Him. In the New Testament, Paul reminds us that our bodies are a temple where the Holy Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 6:19). God wants to dwell in and among us, to be a part of us. We need to stop limiting His presence to a place or time. Be the temple where His Spirit desires to live because the only place where God truly longs to dwell is in your heart.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
John 1:14
Rising with the Son 