All The Days of My Life

Psalm 23:6 Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord [and His presence] shall be my dwelling place.
 
The second part of this verse says that through the length of my days the presence of the Lord will be my dwelling place. I love the way David says His presence shall be my dwelling place. To dwell means that you stay, live, abide or reside somewhere. We can continually stay in the presence of God. Even when we are at work, dealing with the kids, at the grocery store, at the soccer game, at the movies, at school, no matter where we are we can remain in constant fellowship with the Lord. The cool thing is we don’t have to go find Him to dwell with Him, if we praise Him, He’ll find us. Psalm 22:3 says 3But You are holy, O You Who dwell in [the holy place where] the praises of Israel [are offered]. He inhabits the praises of His people. When we praise him out loud, adoring Him, telling Him how great He is, His presence will stay with us. When we pray in our minds, saying thank you for who you are to me, He inhabits that praise too. Try it as you go throughout your day. Meditate on the goodness of God, keep Him in the forefront of your mind and He will dwell with you.
 
The King James version of today’s verse states I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Not only do we have the opportunity to live our lives on earth constantly in the presence of God, we can also dwell with Him in Heaven for all eternity. I love my kids, but I don’t really think they will live with me all of their lives. Don’t get me wrong, they can stay as long as they like, but one day they will leave and have a place of their own. (My husband is Italian so I think he’s planning on trying to keep them as long as he can!) Maybe God is Italian too, because He plans to keep us with Him forever! Jesus said in John 14:2-3 2In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places (homes). If it were not so, I would have told you; for I am going away to prepare a place for you. 3And when (if) I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.  As much as we may desire to dwell with God, He desires even more that we would choose to dwell with Him. John 3:16-17 says it the best 16For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life 17For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him. This is one of my favorite verses because it says all that needs to be said. God loved us so much that He gave His Son so we could have eternal life in fellowship with Him. Take a moment today just to thank Him for His sacrifice, and for His wonderful gift of salvation.