EPHESIANS 2:22 – In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
THEME OF THE DAY. THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD. The truth of today’s scripture is one of the most staggering in all the Bible — In Him (Christ) you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God. Let this sink deep in our minds and hearts. Let this cause us to stop and ponder what God has done. He dwells, not among us, but in us. He has chosen, through His Son, the Lord Jesus, to make our hearts His personal throne room. What could possibly move us to hate sin more, avoid worldliness more, love God more, and live a consecrated life for Him more than the realization of His presence with us and in us? Conversely, what would grieve, sadden, and displease our God more than for us to forget, neglect, ignore, defile by sin and worldliness, His presence in the place of His willful dwelling—our hearts?
In addition to the applications of this truth I shared in the first paragraph, here are two more to encourage us as we walk with the God who lives within us.
First, God dwelling within us provides assurance of our salvation. We must admit, there are times we struggle with doubts concerning our salvation. The devil attacks this area frequently in sensitive Christians. He knows if they live in doubt of their relationship with God, he has rendered a spiritual death blow to them. Oh, they are still saved. Lack of assurance does not mean one is not a Christian, but a child of God walking in doubt and darkness is a poor witness for the Gospel. They won’t be able to proclaim a confident message of Jesus if they are not personally assured of the confident message in Jesus. But the truth of our God dwelling in us provides strong evidence, irrefutable evidence, of assurance. So, when doubts come, fight from a position of “God in us” for greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
Another encouraging truth of God dwelling within us is the power it brings to overcome our fears. Like lack of assurance, the devil will attack Christians with many fears. His aim is to get us to live anxious and stressed out lives – and that by tempting us to fear unknowns, fear people, fear situations, and fear circumstances. And a fearful Christian is a defeated Christian. Do a Bible study sometime of all the times God tells His people, “Fear not.” Start in Genesis and work through the entire Bible. Such a study will put fear to flight as we see the God who commands “fear not” is also the God who says, “I will be with you and in you” (John 15:4-7; 17:21).
What a staggering truth that the God who created the universe would not only condescend to become man and save us from our sins, but then would willingly, with delight and pleasure, take up His residency in our hearts. Let’s pray that God makes this truth more and more a daily reality in our lives. It will change everything as we seek to influence our worlds for Him.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to guard my heart and always remember it is Your personal throne room in me.”
QUOTE: “Let the truth of God dwelling with us be a strong motivator to avoid sin and worldliness.”