“I will not enter my house or go to my bed—I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob. Arise, O LORD, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. NIV
Those words were spoken by David. He’d become conscious of the need to bring back to Jerusalem the ark of the Lord, which had been taken by the Philistines. But he’d come to realize also that he had to prepare a place, find and prepare a place, before he could invite the Lord to take up His resting place in the midst of His people. And there’s an important principle there, we need to prepare a place for the Lord before we ask Him to take up His residence with us.
There are two great hindrances, I believe, to the Lord dwelling with us. Each of them in English begins with the letter “p.” The first is pride, the second is prejudice. As long as we’re arrogant and haughty, we do not have a place for the Lord. As long as we’re occupied with our own ways, our own thoughts, our own concepts, we’re determined to make God act the way we think He ought to act. Those two barriers of pride and prejudice can keep the Lord from finding a resting place in our hearts and lives.
So let’s remember that before we invite the Lord to make His resting place, to come with the ark of His might and bring the fullness of His presence and His blessing, we have to be sure that we’ve prepared an appropriate place for God to rest in.
