Sanctuary Within Sanctuary
Photo by Preston Goff on Unsplash
We can never forget from where the Lord brought us. Sometimes the remembrance presents in the form of a core memory and other times it presents right before your very eyes. The presence of the Lord was so very strong during service yesterday. As we worshipped, our Pastor shared that she didn’t wish to interrupt and go through the normal rituals that we’ve come to anticipate at the end of service. She encouraged people to remain at the altar, remain in worship, remain connected and take it with us as we left the sanctuary. I gathered myself, wiped my eyes, still very full from the God-encounter. I turned to depart and saw a young woman with her hands clasped, eyes filled with tears and laser focused on the praise team who was still bellowing “Hallelujah, Salvation and Glory, Honor and Power Unto the Lord Our God.” Tears began to form in the place I’d just wiped. I was immediately catapulted back to the early 90s whereby I stood in the sanctuary, holding to the Word of God delivered through God’s messenger, feeling that anything was possible and yet terrified beyond measure to leave and return to life whereby my faith and the Word I’d just consumed be tested. I was navigating being a young mom, being in a marriage that didn’t make sense, rubbing nickels together to purchase a happy meal and struggling to remain in a profession that wanted my rhythm while contributing to my blues. I stood and sat many a days petrified to depart the sanctuary where I felt closest to the Creator and could embrace His promises and believe them to be true…even for me. I walked over to the young sister and embraced her. She wept more and I could feel her release. After our embrace, I asked, “How may I pray with you this week?” She responded, “Pray that I will release things, even the smallest things to God.” Bingo!
It was if I was a mirror was being held up to me. I told her “Just trust Him. Trust Him with the small things. Release one thing and watch God and then another, until you are able to trace His Hand in everything.” I went on to pray with her and even as I left the sanctuary and even as I type, my prayers are still with her. In the sanctuary and in the presence and shared space with other believers, the possibilities of God are tangible. I recall then (and sometimes now) my desire to remain in that space, unaware and underdeveloped in the knowledge to realize that the sanctuary of our God can reside within us. Every song, every word, every embrace can be housed within our person. While being with other worshippers is certainly welcomed and we make a conscious decision to experience the presence of God together, God is not regulated to remain; in fact, He desires to go with us - and if He is with us, so is His power.
We think of August as the month of new beginnings. What are you holding onto that stands ready to be released to God? God takes residence in the sanctuary and that suggests that He will take residence in us - if we invite Him in. While Exodus 25:8 refers to God’s instruction for a physical dwelling for His dwelling, in our contemporary space, God desires the physical dwelling to be us, ordinary people harboring extraordinary things. I’m a witness. Every time I’ve trusted God since the early 90’s, He’s yet to fail me! So when the tears come (because they still do) and I am having a hard time reminding myself of who God is, I’m grateful that He provides evidence - even in the form of a sister with clasped hands and the faith to expect sanctuary, external to sanctuary. May God blow her mind and may she bear witness to someone else who needs to hear her testimony of how God worked it all for her good and His Glory.