Desiring the Inner Sanctum of the Holy

“O Lord, who may abide in your tent?

Who may dwell on your holy hill?”

~Psalm 15:1 (NRSV).

Just what is it that fills out thoughts? If you’re anything like me you’ll often be amazed in a slightly disappointed way at the variance and lack of quality of your thinking. Most of my thinking really does not really rate that well. I am a human being after all.

Desiring the inner sanctum of the Holy is rectifying this.

It’s a highly contingent thought-space.

How Far Gone?

At the end of a season — or anytime for that matter — we’re placed in a reflective vein. And perhaps for those who call themselves disciples of Jesus Christ there is a common finding: how far have we wandered from that much-cherished inner sanctum of God — our Holy of Holies?

It’s sad but true. Pride is the penultimate step; it’s the step before we finally realise just how far away we are from the will of God, and that place enjoyed in the Presence of the Almighty.

Desiring Upon Returning

I recall a season a few years ago now where I spent hours each day basking before the glory of God. I learned so much. It was a growing time. I wondered at the time, often, whether I was going to explode. From ecstasy to exhaustion I would often run — sometimes on the same day.

And then came the dry times. Times when God was further away (or so it seemed), but, again, I was not so needy (or so it seemed).

But dry times like this precipitate a broadening of the spiritual sense. Learning occurs by stealth and hunger is bridged by this absence we can’t quite put our finger on.

I’ve felt it recently. It’s a tearing feeling. It’s the Spirit gnawing away at the person within to stand up and take some notice of the journey to be had — that one from deep inside right into the most magnificent Spiritual warmth of the Lord God.

Taking Our Sojourn with the Spirit

Not something we control by any means, this journey has drawn us to commence something. It’s a deeply introverted and introspective sort of thing.

Even though Psalm 15 is quite a moralistically-practical psalm — one that bends us back to the truth that godly acts are at the very heart of godly purpose — it hearkens us to seek God’s face, to dwell in the Almighty.

We never truly tire of doing this.

This is because we never get it satisfactorily right.

Even during times of weeping joy at the sheer resplendence of resting in the bosom of God we can’t get enough; there’s always more to be had and even the gorgeous quantity of the Presence is not absorbed with adequate digestion.

Taking the sojourn again, then, is a critical path. It’s a time when we will again find our vital selves. And suddenly the most majestic of our cares will dim to their right-light in comparison to the Lord, our God.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.