Samuel 3:3 The Lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. (ESV)
Ever been in a conversation between people of different generations? You know the ones where someone older tells you, “We had to walk five miles in the snow, uphill to get to school.” Or maybe it was you and it sounded more like this, “When we were kids we had to get up off the couch to change the channel.” Then there’s this one, “We had to look facts up in the encyclopedia.” I am sad to say these are all statements that are relevant to my lifetime, and I am young!! It is crazy how fast time seems to go and culture seems to change. When you think about it, time actually goes by at the same rate every day. The changes in culture are what alert us that our world is rapidly moving.
I was recently sitting in a Pink Equip class listening to a pastor teach on 1 Samuel 3. It left me thinking. I have read the passage before and didn’t even feel like I needed to go to my Bible app as I was confident I knew the story. But in the way only God can, He showed me there was more to the story of Samuel learning to hear God and learning to dwell in His presence. There were six little words that grabbed my attention and had me thinking for the next few days. Yes! I said next few days. I didn’t even need the whole sentence, just six words. The Bible says “The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.” Did you see the six words that got me? Here they are, “where the ark of God was.”
Samuel was dwelling where the ark of God was.
If we could use the powers of science fiction to have a conversation with Old Testament believers, they would tell us with conviction about some differences that are huge between our lives and theirs. In their days on earth, Jesus had not come, died, rose again and left the Holy Spirit. They relied on the ark of God. God’s presence was housed in the ark. I think Bible time Christians would see our immense freedom to dwell in God’s presence without hesitation, as a priceless gift that we sometimes don’t value. You see, in order for the presence of God to go with the people, they had to willfully pick up the ark and take it with them. We need to do the same in our hearts and minds.
Dwell. To stay. To remain.
Those definitions bring up imagery that feels like you need to be in a certain place to properly “dwell.” But keep reading all of the definitions . . . to ponder, to linger in thought, speech or writing. While our present day vernacular is not one that overuses the word “dwell” it is still a powerful thought in terms of the incredible way that Christ lives in us. While our current culture is one of busy schedules with little time to do this foreign thing called dwelling, we can still dwell with Christ and He in us. We no longer have to follow the ark of God to be in His presence. We have been given the gift of taking Him with us.
What are you dwelling on? Where are your thoughts? Conversations? Writing? Maybe you are reading this and you are thinking you don’t write. What about email? Social Media? Journaling? We all write in some way. Take a few minutes to dwell on the goodness of God! Ponder, linger in your thoughts, conversations and writing on God! Just Dwell!!!
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