God's Dwelling Place

I cannot believe how long it has been since my last post. (Did you give up on me?) The Spirit continues to call me and speak His wisdom each day but there are times and seasons when the world seems like it is spinning out of control and hours turn into days, then days turn into weeks before my very eyes.

The Spirit calls me today to slow down. He calls me to come away with Him and just sit for a while and recover my heart.

We live in a vastly different "world" than the one that Jesus entered. Different in the sense that man's inventions and technological advancements have known no bounds. Knowledge has accelerated and so has the pace of our lives. As I look around I just have to marvel at how creative and amazing are the things that man has come up with in an effort to control his life and environment.

Travel has gone from feet to buggy to car to plane. We have gained so much in our mobility but lost so much in our endurance. Most of us regardless of our age cannot fathom a physical walk even to the store to buy our daily food.

The same principle applies to every other arena of our life. Quick fixes, immediate gratification of our needs or desires and everything operating at the speed of light. But we have lost so many more important things in the process. We have lost time itself. Time is such a sweet blessing from God. God inhabits Eternity. We have somehow become so programmed to only consider the immediate temporal that we have lost our sense of eternity and the peaceful patience that goes with it.

While so much is different now than 2000 years ago, man's basic problem is still the same. Unlike the enemy of our soul who demands spontaneous quick responses and reactions that lead to destructive decisions, the Lord exhorts us to "give careful thought to our ways". We are to ponder, meditate, get wisdom all of which takes time that we don't "feel" we have.

No matter how advanced we consider ourselves to have become, we are still plagued by the same old problems and there is still only One cure even today.

The God of all creation is calling us to turn our hearts toward Him. Even though our pace has accelerated way past the clock of Haggai's day, the message of this prophet of God sent to the people is relevant to us here and now.

Haggai 1:9, "Give careful thought to your ways. You expected much but see it turned out to be little. What you brought home I blew away. Why? Because of My house which remains a ruin while each of you is busy with his own house. " The Spirit reveals how our time, energy and attention in this fast paced life is being diverted to "existing" not living. We are to live with the Presence of our God, our Lord, our Savior. Our hearts, His Home can be "ruined" by neglect.

For me, the message is that "it's time to slow down, get out of the fast lane, give careful thought to the Lord's dwelling place, my heart...His home." The call is for all of us to give careful thought to our priorities in this fast paced world.

The Lord is and always has been the One who has all the answers to all the problems we might have to face in any given day. But do we take the time to seek Him and then do we take the time to listen for His response? Have we forgotten the covenant with Jesus that we entered when we first got saved? Our heart was offered as His dwelling place....Have we let it go to ruin through neglect...been too busy with the urgent to find the important?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?