January 27, 2021
O Lord, I love the house in which you dwell, and the place where your glory abides.
– Psalm 26:8
…Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price…
- 1 Corinthians 6:19
Where do we find God? That question might take us in many directions and much of it depends on how we were formed in our childhood, and our current relationship with God. Hopefully, we can learn to recognize God in everything as God is the maker of all things, and recreator of hope in us.
The psalmist, we must remember, comes from a different time, a time in which they believed the glory of God dwelled in the temple of God, and even in a special place within the temple where early on the Arc of the Covenant was kept. In the days from Moses until Solomon the temple of the Lord was a tent that could be moved from place-to-place, the location of the temple didn’t matter as much as that the temple was were one would find the Arc, and therefore the presence of God. After the temple was built during the time of King Solomon, the Jews refocused their aspects of worship to be in the temple in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the city promised to their ancestors, and the temple, there, would be the place where God’s presence could be found.
As the generations past, the temples was destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again, leaving the sense of identity for many who worshiped God in a state of flux; however, as Christians we also rely on the teachings of Jesus, his apostles, and of course Paul. Paul tells us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. This means the place where the glory dwells is in us, who believe.
So, where can we find God? We find God in ourselves as we offer ourselves to the love and grace God pours out in us. We find God in the eyes of another, knowing that there is no one that God does not choose to love. We find God in the warm conversations we have with loved ones and strangers. We find God as we worship in truth whether in a sanctuary, our home, or our car singing along to the radio. We find God in the place where God’s glory dwells as we seek to abide in his Word and Truth each day of this life on until everlasting life. Let his glory be found in you today and always.
Grace & Peace,