I AM a Sanctuary ... Revising a favorite worship song

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In worship on Sunday, we sang a song I haven't thought of in years. I've always really liked the song. But this time, I heard the lyrics as if for the first time. And my heart cried out, "NO!"

In the song, we are basically asking the Lord to do what He has already done through our faith in Christ. I thought, "We need to be thanking Him instead of asking."

Here are the lyrics of the chorus:

Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for You

As the song continued on, repeating the chorus several times, I found myself correcting it as I went along.

You prepared me to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I am a living
Sanctuary for you

Why would I do such a thing? Well, I can't get past the truth of God's Word:

Or do you not know that your body IS a temple [sanctuary] of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own ...  1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV

Do you not know that YOU ARE God's temple [sanctuary] and that God's Spirit dwells in you?  1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes ONE SPIRIT with him.  1 Corinthians 6:17 ESV

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes... And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.  Ephesians 1: 3,4,13 NLT

And there are many more that speak of our union with God the moment we come to Christ by faith. We become a new creation and the Spirit of God comes to dwell within forever. So we become the sanctuary of the Living God, and nothing and no one can change that. 

So I say, THANK YOU, O God!

Friends, what other songs might we be singing? What other phrases might we be saying (our Christian cliches) that are no longer valid if we are children of God?

Think about that. Amen.

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Here is the beautiful song Sanctuary. Why not join me in singing it, making the corrections as you go along. Let the Truth of the indwelling Spirit of God grab hold of you in a fresh and deep way.