Holy of Holies

Take away the distractions.

Take away the lights. Take away the stage. Take away the “leaders”, the microphones, the screens, the “right” words. Take away the money, the designer clothes, the status. Take away the coffee, the laziness. Take away the “hectic morning”, the remains of last night. Take away the past, the future. Take away the kids, the husband, the wife, the best friend. Take away the judgement. Take away all comfort. Take away all inhibition. Take away all thought.

Let true, holy, righteous, selfless, genuine, unadulterated worship replace it all. Let God be the recipient of your purest, highest praise, of your undivided attention, of your uninterrupted thoughts. Let your Maker rejoice in being the meditation, the dedication, the adoration of His creation.

We are intended to worship Him with our whole life, from the deepest depths of our souls. We have been chosen for this kind of worship, and we have been saved for an eternity of this.

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:28)

Let us worship our King.

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Reading through the description of the Ark of the Covenant, the Bronze Alter, the Tabernacle, and everything in it in Exodus, I’m sad and a little frustrated at the way we (especially myself) view and worship God.

In the days of the Tabernacle and animal sacrifices and high priests, the Holy of Holies (where the Ark was placed, the inner room of the Tabernacle) was where God dwelled, and it was treated with the utmost reverence and respect. It was to be honored and approached in awe. God’s presence was a tangible power to be feared and handled with the highest respect.

And it still is today.

However, now we are God’s Tabernacle, His dwelling place is in the hearts of His saints. He is our “great high priest” (Heb. 4:14) and because of Christ’s death, the curtain–synonymous with the flesh of Christ–of the temple was torn in two (Matt. 27:51) so that we may “…with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace…” (Heb. 4:16). 

So why not revere God all the more? Has He not paid the highest price, left the glory of His throne to conquer death, chosen us while we were still sinners? This has become my challenge to myself: the way I live my life, the decisions I make, and how I worship my Savior must reflect my identity in Christ. I have been radically and wonderfully made righteous because God so chose, and God deserves my life lived in a way that radically and wonderfully glorifies and worships Him.

#Faith