The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Close Proximity"
Through the years, I have been blessed with some wonderful companions who have helped me write the Orange Moon devotionals. Grunt, Sparrow, and Ellie are their names. "Beagle" is their breed. I have rarely written without one of them at my side, or at least in close proximity. Just this morning, I asked Ellie (after first consulting with the Lord), "What are we going to write about today, Elliebellie?" Can't say I heard Ellie answer, but her nearness to me did raise a thought of sublime wonder.
"Close proximity." Whew! The phrase draws us into pondering a gift of grace for which even eternity will not fully reveal its blessedness or its effect.
"I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).
God loves human hearts so much He is not content to simply dwell with them. He must rather live within them to fulfill the desire of His devotion. Moreover, He is not content to merely live within us. No, He purposes to "walk" in us, that is, the Holy Spirit who moved upon primordial waters of creation so long ago now moves within trusting and submitted spirits to reveal the power of God in the temple of human hearts, hands, and feet. The wonder began in the Lord Jesus Christ, the spiritual progenitor of a race of humanity permanently inhabited and energized by the living God (John 1:33). It proceeds to every born again believer who, in the moment of salvation, becomes a living miracle whereby the Lord uncontainable by the heavens somehow births a place of grace deep in our redeemed hearts. Or, as the Apostle Paul exulted, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
The Apostle Peter wrote that angels desire to look into the involvement of God with human beings (I Peter 1:12). Doubtless, many matters of such wonder intrigue angelic contemplation and curiosity. However, none can be more fascinating than the subject we presently ponder. I can almost imagine a cherub or a seraphim approaching their Lord with the bewildered inquiry, "You are going to live within them, Master?! And walk in them?!" "I will dwell in them and walk in them" would be our God's response. No doubt a wonder to angels, but to former rebels redeemed into sonship and daughterhood in Christ, something far more than wonder arises within our hearts. "You dwell and walk within me, Lord?"
He does. Of course, we presently "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7). Much of God's abiding and working we do not realize or see. But He is there, or rather, He is here living and moving in us, even as we live and move in Him. Thanks for the reminder, Ellie. You picked a good subject! And thank You, Father, for the "unspeakable gift" of Your Spirit's blessed and mighty presence in our spirits (II Corinthians 9:15; I Corinthians 6:17). May we join the angels, looking into such hope of glory with far keener interest than we have ever known, and with far greater response of faith and faithfulness than we have ever experienced as we embrace the close proximity of the God who dwells and walk in us.
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
(I Corinthians 3:16)
"It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
(Philippians 2:13)
Weekly Memory Verse
For we walk by faith, not by sight."
(II Corinthians 5:7)
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