Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

A Daily Devotional by Kenton Cheek

5 May 2024

Reading From II Samuel 7, I Chronicles 17

“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: You are not the one to build me a house to dwell in. I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day. I have moved from one tent site to another, from one dwelling place to another. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their leaderswhom I commanded to shepherd my people, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’

–I Chronicles 17:4-6

     God is everywhere in the universe at the same time but He can also have a localized Presence at the same time such as in the Tabernacle, the Temple and during the Earthly life of Jesus Christ.  His desire has always been to dwell among His people.  He wants to be right here in the midst of us, with us as we go out, come in, eat, drink, sleep, work, play and everything in between.  Such depth of love and profound compassion the world has never known except from God. 

     David is feeling guilty because he lives in a grand palace made of cedar while God “lives” in the Tent of Meeting.  Yahweh replies that He does not need a house, but that David’s heir will build Him one.  Solomon does indeed build a magnificent temple for the Lord, but God had something more intimate in mind.  Almighty God wanted to take His relationship with His people to a deeper level by not only living with them, but living inside of them; the Most High God would dwell within our hearts by His Spirit. 

     In being born again, God breathes into the believer new spiritual life and takes up residence within the very core of their being.  In Him we live and move and have our being.  We become temples of God and are being pulled together in unity as a mighty Temple; the House of the Lord, the eternal family of God.  When a person decides to live life His way, there is an expansion of the fulfillment of God’s dream.  Oh how He longs to fill your heart with His Presence!  He longs to fill your life with goodness, peace, love, joy, faith and hope.  In being with us and within us, we need never to feel alone or afraid or anxious or worried.  God is the God of the universe and He’s our God.

“Lord, I pray that each of Your children would have a deeper, greater revelation of Your love and care.  I ask for redemption, power, healing and hope to flood our lives and into our communities and our world.  Thank You for Your love.  Fill us up to overflowing with Your Holy Spirit.  Amen.”

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

–I Corinthians 3:16-17

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”

–Acts 17:24-28