Where Is My Place Of Rest?

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 

(I Cor. 3: 16)

"Where is the place of my rest?" When God asks a question it is foolish to ignore it. Rather should we muse upon it and seek the right answer. So it is with this question.

There is much information about salvation being an experience where the believer himself enters into "God's rest." (See Heb. 3 & 4) In these cases the ones who are doing the resting are believers and their rest is manifold, being enjoyed in this life partially and in eternity fully, in a literal place of rest in the new heavens and earth. But, in the above texts it is God who is entering into rest. Of course, this does not mean that God gets tired, but it means the place he calls home, the place where he especially dwells. 

Temples of wood and stone (material structures) are not only historically seen as places of worship but as places where God(s) dwelt, and the place where the worshipers could "meet" and "commune" in the deity's house. In the new testament, the "temple of God" is used to describe the person of believers (in which God is said to dwell) and to describe the church, the body of Christ, believers as a group or corporate entity. Of the latter Paul said - "in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." (Eph. 2: 22) Of the former Paul wrote:

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are." (I Cor. 3: 16-17)

Of the former, of individual believers, Paul again wrote:

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" (I Cor. 6: 19)

The temple is the place of God's rest. Two times in the new testament we are told that "God does not dwell in temples made with hands." (Acts 7: 48; 17: 24) But, the human body is not made with hands, not a human creation, but is made by God. Thus, when he dwells in a believer he is not dwelling in temples made with hands. When God, the whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, take up their abode in the believer, God finds his place of rest. Said the Lord Jesus:

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him." (John 14: 23)

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." (Rev. 3: 20)

Yes, we find joy in knowing that a "rest remains for the people of God," and that we are promised entrance into it, but we joy even more to know that God has found his rest, his home and domicile, in us! Glory hallelujah! Wrote the hymnwriter:

"Joy to the world! The Lord is come Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare Him room."

Will you prepare room for the Lord in your heart? Once he enters he is there to stay! He says "I will never leave you."