1 Peter 2:4–6 ‘You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’ (v5)
There are two critical ways we are instructed in our Christian faith. Both are aspects of the spiritual house that God is building. Every house is separated into different rooms.
Jesus teaches His disciples that when we pray, we are to go into our room, shut the door (Matt. 6:6). Personal prayer is private, a space of interaction between a person and God.
This is often a place of struggle because our active minds find it hard to rest and be still before the presence of God.
Therefore, I have a space devoted to prayer in our house to minimise distractions and remind me I’m there to pray.
However, we are also temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19–20) and as such we are mobile prayer rooms able to pause and pray anywhere by silencing ourselves and entering God’s presence.
Peter reminds us of the second way in which we are instructed by God, through active fellowship. As bricks who will reveal the presence of God in the world, we are built together.
This means the bricks around us exert pressure on us, as we will on them. This pressure can sometimes irritate us, yet without each other we can never give full expression to God’s reality.
There is a personal and corporate expression to our life with God. Few details are given about the character and nature of either space, but we need both to grow up into maturity in Christ.
Find your place in the building of God’s house as well as developing your own spiritual house.
A Prayer To Make:
‘Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be forever pleasing in Your sight. Amen.’
An Action To Take:
Discover ways to pray at home and on the move, and ensure you are building alongside other disciples so that you establish a strong spiritual house in your heart.
Scripture To Consider:
Ps. 5:1–4 & 19:12–14; Acts 4:23–31; Col. 1:24–29
