As I read now and have read Exodus 26 before with such exact detailing of how God’s tabernacle in the desert was to be built, I can’t help but marvel at how much better I could appreciate it were I a fine craftsman. I’m such a visual person so reading specifications like this I get lost. This morning, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like for the Children of Israel to anticipate what was going to be made and why. God’s dwelling with them and yet, He had no need for that dwelling. They had need. If I had been a child then, I would have been so comforted knowing God’s Presence in the cloud or light or soon in a tabernacle that would be there. I feel comforted by His Presence now.

This morning reading The Chosen 40 Days With Jesus Book Two, one of the authors wrote of the desperate need of realizing what we cannot do on our own. In her case it was healing a child born with severe special needs and relating to the account in John 4:50 of a man who walked 20 miles because he heard Jesus would be there and his son was dying. She wrote: Lots of time was wasted thinking and worrying and fearing the worst. I became acutely aware of my need for Jesus. Suddenly, I couldn’t get to Him fast enough. No fancy prayers were involved. I cried out to Him and pleaded with raw, often unintelligible words that resembled, Please, Lord. Just please. I imagine the royal official’s plea didn’t sound much different. When he asked for help, Jesus gave a seemingly off-topic response. He said, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe.” But Jesus wasn’t speaking to the royal official. He was addressing the crowd that had gathered around them. They wanted to see if Jesus would do the same signs and wonders He did in Jerusalem. They were just curious, not desperate. Incidentally, they didn’t see any miracles that day. But guess who did. Jesus told the royal official to go home and that his son would live. He took Jesus at His word and departed. That’s it. That’s how it went down. And that’s exactly what all of us desperate people are supposed to do: Take. Jesus. At. His. Word. In the PRAYER FOCUS: Thank God for His sovereign mercy and that He weaves desperation into our stories. Ask Him to increase your faith and help you to take Him at His word. Praise Him for being your comfort and your healer and for meeting you when you are most vulnerable.

Yesterday I felt pretty desperate when I went to Him in prayer asking Him to forgive my jealousy, an ugly thing. He told me He forgave me. This morning in prayer I stumbled over that again and He told me Maureen let it go. Let go. Take my hand. Walk away from what was that is no longer and be with Me in what is. My love for you. You are yoked to Me and I am helping you. You cannot do this without Me. Embrace my help and your need for Me. I realized that me trying to achieve salvation and His love on my own effort was worthless. When I die I won’t be able to be with God by my efforts and none of us will. I imagined myself standing at the “pearly gates” just as I am by my effort and it was a pretty unimpressive sight. I can’t do this without Him and, Lord, I don’t want to.

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 1 Corinthians 3:16.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8.

God gave such detailed descriptions and specifications for the building of the tabernacle in the desert. He designed such detailed and specific workings of the temple that is our bodies. Our bodies are not made of fine woven linens of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker, v. 1. Our bodies were formed by Almighty God and He knows exactly and specifically what we are and He loves us still. Like us today, the Children of Israel, our ancestors, never appreciated how deep their need was for God until they were in desperate need. Then they cried out. We do too when our need is great. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. John 1:14, 16-18. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:19-20.

I can think about what it would have been like for a child living in the desert seeing a tabernacle where God said He would dwell with them. I can imagine the comfort that would bring, the safety and security in such an uncertain place. I can come to Him now and know that comfort and security in the uncertain place that is me. I keep fighting the same battles within. I realized the problem is that I don’t let go of the guilt. I let it cling to me. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:11-12. Take. Jesus. At. His. Word! The Tabernacle in the desert showed them their great need for God. Why else would He be there? He knows our great need, too. Why else would He be here?