Daily EncouragementSample

Solomon poses this question in his prayer at the dedication of the temple. He answers it with an inevitable negative: “The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple that I have built!” Yet in all his subsequent petitions a positive note emerges, as though the impossible is expected to happen, as God in his grace answers the prayers of his people.

In the New Testament this positive is more clearly heard. It is heard explicitly in the Incarnation: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel - which means, ‘God with us’”; “The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us” (Matt. 1:23, John 1:14).

It is heard in the apostolic letters: “We know that he lives in us;” “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 John 3:24, 1 Cor. 3:16).

It is heard, finally, in the consummation of all things: “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’” (Rev. 21:3).