Another excerpt from Words to the Weary. I love this one.

January 4

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. ~Psalms 84:1-2

I want to be your dwelling place, Weary One. I want you to be able to sit with me and know you are safe. I want you to be able to rest. When you come home at the end of a long day, kick off your shoes and relax. I want you to dwell with me.

It can be hard, when you feel there is no safe place. You are in your own world and it is overwhelming. No one else seems to understand what you are going through. I promise you, I understand. A dwelling is a specific place. Your relationship with me can be a dwelling. I am a roof over your head to protect you from the elements that want to rain down on you. I am a door for you to close out things that try to intrude or to let in things that heal. I am windows so you can look around you to see the beauty I place in your life. I am walls that help divide your life into manageable pieces. I am the hearth where you warm yourself on cold days. I am the kitchen when you need nourishment. I am the library when you are looking for words that lift up. I am everything you need.

And, Beloved, do you know what? You are MY dwelling place. Does it surprise you that I picked you? I chose your heart to be the place I reside. It is the roof, the door, the windows, the walls, the hearth, the kitchen, and the library to me. I find what I need in dwelling with you. You open your door for me to walk in. You are my windows to see what beauty is in your life. You allow me into all the different rooms, so I can rest there. You warm my heart on days when the world wants to shut me out. You nourish me with your worship. You lift me up with your praise. You are everything I need.

It is common for people to believe that I don’t need anything. Yet, I created man and woman for My own pleasure. I desired a relationship so I would not be alone. That desire has always been within me. It is why I created you with a heart that desires communion. You are a spiritual being, like I am. When I dwell in you and you in me, we connect on a deep level. We have an ongoing conversation, not just one time a day, but throughout the day. Everywhere we go, we go together.