"Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for th eFather. Practically everything that goes on in the world – wanting to appear important – has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him. The world and all it's wanting, wanting, wanting is on its way out – but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity." (1 John 2:15-17 MSG)
As it turns out, our heart only has so much room. The world offers us many things that will take up space in our inner quarters; clothes and cars and handbags and household goods. According to Scripture, all this desire requires square footage and squeezes out God. We see this every day – lives filled up with want and desire becomes the rudder. Worldly people live by appetite; stepping on others, taking on unreasonable debt, devoting themselves to the pursuit of wealth and power. When the world inhabits a heart, God is squeezed out.
It’s critical to recall: our heart is designed to be a dedicated tabernacle. While we tend to use our modern church facilities as multi-purpose, the original Tabernacle (and later, Temple) was a protected space of God’s presence. It was earthly square footage designated for God inhabitation; a place to worship and commune with the living God.
This understanding is so very helpful when we apply it to our own tabernacle. God has given us personal opportunity to commune with Him within the very familiar living quarters of our own heart. He still deserves total dedication. We will need to guard our hearts against the appetites and affections of the world that so easily slip across our personal threshold. If these desires are given entry, or worse, allowed inhabitation, we run the real risk of squeezing God out. We recall our original dedication: we have designated this space to our Creator-Sustainer and to take it back is treason.
When we fill our heart with stuff, it becomes a dank, dark cellar instead of the wide-open God-space it was meant to be. I think back to my parents’ house and basement. Their home was a lovely new construction, but they carried forty years of belongings into it. They believed these things to be valuable, but without light and air it all became dusty, musty junk. By the time they passed away, their beautiful new house was totally obscured by their obsession with their possessions. You couldn’t enjoy the home as it was designed to be: a place of fellowship.
Similarly, God designed our heart-home to be a tabernacle of His presence. Hearts serve their highest purpose when there is space and light to experience the presence of God. We can’t contain Him, but we can entertain Him, and that’s a privilege we shouldn’t take lightly.
"But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain You. How much less this Temple I have built? (1 Kings 3:27 NLT)
Lord, please forgive us for our rampant appetites and affections. We lived with the world a long while before we dedicated our hearts to You. Today we see how there is not room in our tabernacle for co-habitation. We cannot successfully desire the world and commune with You. The world will inevitably squeeze out our love for You if it’s allowed to dwell in our hearts. Help us chase it out, Lord. Show us how to put up boundaries and guard against its re-entry. We rededicate our tabernacle to You. We devote our hearts to Your inhabitation. Dwell with us. Rewrite our appetites and affections according to Your intentions. Our heart belongs to You. Amen.