Never Leave the Temple

I’ve had a convergence of sorts happen in my life. It’s one of the ways that God gets my attention.

Not long ago a writer friend expressed a desire to memorize scripture in the coming year. I was intrigued with the idea, but it was the text she chose that caught my attention. Her choice: John 15. And the word that jumped out at me from that first was “meno”, abide or remain.

Then our pastor referred to the Prophetess Anna when he gave the children’s story. He talked about how Anna “never left the temple.” (See Luke 2:36-38) It wasn’t that she lived there, but that she was there physically whenever possible and in her spirit she carried the temple wherever she went.

And I began to see my theme forming. My #oneword is meno, abide, remain, dwell. And my #oneverse is “never leave the temple.”

Sitting in the pew, I found myself lost in thought…but not really lost because I began to see things unfolding, the many facets of abiding.

Spiritually I will need to pay attention to the verses that point to praying always, thinking on these things, dwelling.

But it also reminded me of where Paul describes our bodies as the temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:20). I can’t leave the temple even if I want to–and I need to be taking better care of this temple. And therein lies a whole bunch of goals and work for 2014.

So now that you know, feel free to ask me occasionally how things are going at the temple…and I’m sure I’ll find a few things to write about, too.