When God liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, they had to travel through miles of rough territory to get to the land that God had promised them. God always sought to assure his people that he was present with them to lead them and guide them. In the accounts of the wilderness journey of the Israelites, we are informed that a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire served that specific purpose (Exodus 13.21-22).
Then, at Mount Sinai, the Lord instructed the Israelites to build a tabernacle. The tabernacle was something like a portable temple which the Israelites carried with them and set up at specified times during their journey. The tabernacle was called the “dwelling of Yahweh” as well as the “tent of meeting.” Now there was a way were the people could meet with Yahweh—to worship him and to receive guidance—in the midst of their daily challenges. Years after the Israelites settled in Canaan, the temple was built and somehow the understanding of the presence of God became limited to this one sacred place, and became distant from the daily affairs of the people.
When Christ came he restored the sense of God’s presence in daily life. The apostle Paul recognized that the individual believer and the community of believers were the dwelling of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 3.16; 2 Corinthians 6.16). God is not a distant god; he is constantly present with the believer. It is a matter of a person acknowledging this truth and letting this truth transform his daily living. God’s presence ought to have significant impact in how one lives his or her life—the choices made, the goals pursued, the attitudes developed, the activities participated in, the overall lifestyle.
In the foreword to his book Prayer from the Heart, Richard Foster describes his whole life as “an experiment in how to be a portable sanctuary—learning to practice the presence of God in the midst of the stresses and strains of contemporary life.” Such a task presents the “great challenge … to experience the reality of God in the midst of going to work and raising kids and cleaning house and paying the bills.”
When we consciously and intentionally choose to live our lives with the reality of God’s presence as our “rule for life,” perhaps we can become a place where others can encounter God as well. Are you a portable sanctuary?
—Keith Y. Jainga