I found two notes in the margin of my Bible as I was reading this morning that stopped me in my tracks.
The passage was from Exodus 29. It was about the consecration of the priests and I was maybe not paying quite as much attention to priest consecration as I should. When I came to verse 43, I had to backtrack to get the full impact. I'll show you the two verses that spoke to me, then tell you what I learned.
"It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations
at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the Lord,
where I will meet with you, to speak to you there.
And they shall know that I am the Lord their God
who brought them out of the land of Egypt,
that I might dwell among them. "
Exodus 29:42, 46 nasb
My notes in the margin of my Bible (from 2/2005) read:
"The purpose of meeting with God daily is for Him to speak to me."
"The reason for bringing them out of bondage was so that God could dwell with them."
I don't know about you, but sometimes I forget who is supposed to be talking in these early morning quiet times of mine. There are days when my routine goes something like this:
Read a little Scripture. Run through a litany of prayer requests. Proceed to my day.
That's not the way quiet time with the Lord is supposed to go.
It's not called quiet time because God is supposed to be quiet before us. It's called quiet time because we are supposed to be quiet before Him.
I hate to admit this, but I kinda wanted to read over what I'd written yesterday before I got to quiet time this morning. My laptop was in my hand, but I set it aside. "No, Lord. I'd rather hear from You first," I said and reached for my Bible.
I was cruising through the passage when Exodus 29:42 hit me like a palm to the forehead. "I'd rather speak to you first, too," it seemed as if the Lord said. "I want to dwell with you. That's why I brought you out of your sinful life."
It's what God wants with all of us. He wants to abide, to dwell with us. To speak with us and help us live the kind of lives He intended for us.
We don't have to do life alone. God stands ready to walk through it with us, but the choice is ours.
Will we stop talking long enough to listen?
Will we step outside our Egypt of sin and allow Him to dwell with us?
We have a choice to make, and it's one we must make every day.
No matter how busy we are, no matter how many concerns burden our hearts, the first One who should speak as we begin our day is the Lord God Almighty. If we'll listen, we might find He has exactly the words we needed to hear.
Our next Friday Night with Friends guest blog will post at 6 pm this Friday night. You don't want to miss it!
In case you missed one of the past week's posts, here are the links: Behavior That Demonstrates Belief, Answered Prayer: The Bulletproof Vest, Bringing Good from Tragedy: Wives of Warriors Make a Difference, Friday Night with Friends: New Beginning, The Temperament Test and Married Oneness, Leaving a Legacy: Choices That Last for Generations, Jumping to Conclusions: The Terrorists That Were Not, Nothing is Impossible: Ayman al-Zawahiri
#quiettime #Godspeaks #chronologicalBible #devotions #JesusChrist #disciple #wordofGod #Biblestudy #Bible
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