Dwellings

As children of God we should live in his house.
So often we come just to visit it.

I come in, unload my baggage at the door alongside my sneakers, soak in a bit of your presence and then politely say goodbye and leave. But if I really believe that I am your kid, that I AM a Child of God then I should live in your house,

That means I eat there, sleep there, brush my teeth there.

I bring my baggage past the welcome mat and dump it on the living room floor for us to deal with together, although admittedly you seem to do most of the cleaning up (kids are messy!). I don't just fill up on some weakly quota of God-presence.

I DWELL IN IT.

I sleep in God-peace and tell you my hopes for the day over breakfast. I listen to you as you tell me the way I should go, and then you tell me how much you love me. I worship as I enter the house and take you with me as I leave. I get to worship in the house all the time! I get to live  with my life soaked in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And that's crazy!

I don't just get to visit God's house but I am invited to live in it, because somehow God believes hanging out with me is a pretty rad thing. The God of the universe loves us and wants to adopt us as his own. Sometimes it feels easier to just visit God instead of live our lives with him. We get to control more that way, or at least we get to think that we do. When we live in God's house, he likes to give us all sorts of advice on how we do things, and that can be difficult for us. But this way we also cease to be spiritual orphans. God takes us in and claims us. He says that we are chosen, called and loved. He loves to spend time with us the same way a father loves to spend time with his kids. He speaks identity over us and calls us sons and daughters. With an option like that why should I continue to visit when the invitation to LIVE in that truth stands?

How lovely is your dwelling place,
    Lord Almighty!
 My soul yearns, even faints,
    for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
    for the living God.
 Even the sparrow has found a home,
    and the swallow a nest for herself,
    where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
    Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
    they are ever praising you. 

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
    whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
    they make it a place of springs;
    the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength,
    till each appears before God in Zion.

 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
    listen to me, God of Jacob.
 Look on our shield, O God;
    look with favor on your anointed one.

 Better is one day in your courts
    than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
    than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
    the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
    from those whose walk is blameless.

 Lord Almighty,
    blessed is the one who trusts in you.

-Psalm 84