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Finding the Resting Place

Streams of rain poured from the heavens the day after Christmas. The rumbling of raindrops calmed my soul and gave one final justification, of the season, to be a homebody.


Hopefully treasured times of connection with friends and family have filled your December and not just an exhaustive list of rooms to decorate, recipes to make, and items to purchase. Regardless of how your Christmas season turned out, it's drawing to an end. Are you satisfied or are you visited by the post-holiday blues? 


Soon the gyms will be full and mindsets will shift back to goals and work. A part of me loves the idea of a new beginning and casting vision. Today my thoughts are elsewhere. I can't help but notice how quickly we go from one thing to the next. The tides of time roll in and out but, what about rest? 


More than once I have had to learn the lesson of Sabbath rest. The all powerful God, at the very beginning, institutionalized rest weekly. The gift of trusting the Provider enough to refrain from work is just the beginning.  Sabbath rest is mostly about reconnected to and praising God. 


But what of the Lord's rest? Before you answer that God doesn't need rest, remember that He did rest on the seventh day. Whether He needed rest or not, He chose to partake. 


Lately, my focus has been on seeking the indwelling of Holy Spirit. Seems all my faith and experience is summed up to very little compared to the Living God's overmastering.


All the crying out has barely scratched the surface, until this morning.


My devotional led me to 2 Chronicles 6, Solomon's dedication. Solomon had the pleasure of building a place for the Lord to dwell. At the dedication of the temple he talked about many things including sin, defeat, famine, justice, forgiveness, but most of all prayer. Finally, he prayed, "Now, O my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. Now then arise, O Lord God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength and power."


We know from 1 Corinthians 6 that God now makes His dwelling in our earthly temples and not the structure of the old covenant. The indwelling is to have the eyes and ears of the Lord day and night. Perhaps, at that point, every thought and word is a prayer. 


God is omniscient, knowing everything, as Psalms 139 illustrates with, "If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there." In a sense, we cannot escape God's eyes and ears but Solomon's prayer is touching on something else. The temple then and our physical bodies now are to be the Holy Spirit's resting place!


We can offer God our obedience and praise but to be His resting place? What accommodations seem fitting for the King of Kings?


One thing is for sure, I cannot possibly provide all He deserves. As I reflect on these things I am left only to repent. Fortunately, our Savior offers cleansing through our repentance, and the fellowship between the perfect God and the sinful heart of man is forged. 


When was the last time you repented? Is there a needed forgiveness you have yet to seek? What keeps you from interacting with the Father in this manner?





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