The Tent of Meeting: Why Your Brain Needs a Place to Meet with God

The Tent of Meeting

Why Your Brain Needs a Place to Meet with God

By Shara Neubert

This week, I was doing exactly what I encourage women in my Bible studies to do. I was practicing the READ Method™.  I had my coffee beside me, my Bible open on my lap, and I was intentionally slowing down. One of the habits I’ve been working on is reading every single word instead of letting my eyes race ahead. I practice noticing what God has actually written.

As I came to Exodus 33, one little phrase stopped me.

“Now Moses used to take a tent...” (Exodus 33:7)

Used to. What does that mean?  I actually smiled.

Then I did what I always encourage others to do—I examined the words. After that, I reached for a couple of other translations to see how they described the scene, and the picture became clearer and clearer. This wasn’t a special event.

This was Moses’ way of life.

The people were used to seeing him pitch that tent outside the camp. They knew where he was going. They knew what he was going to do. In fact, when they saw Moses walking toward the tent, they would stand at the entrances of their own tents and worship while the pillar of cloud descended and the Lord met with Moses.

Can you imagine that? An entire nation recognized one man’s habit of meeting with God. That thought has stayed with me all week. And then another question came.

What if every one of us had our own tent of meeting?

Not because God only meets us in one place. Of course He doesn’t, but because we are human. We need places that remind us what we’re about to do with lighting, textures, aromas, and peace. 

God Designed Our Brains in a Remarkable Way

I came across an NPR interview with a women by the name of  Maryanne Wolf.  She was talking about Deep Reading and it’s importance to how we remember things and are dealing with distractions in our digital age.  As I was listening to the audio replay, I kept thinking about Moses.  I have spent the last 2 months reading (and listening) to anything I can get my hands on that is serious writing about why we read and how we read.  Then I apply that to my Bible reading. 

I have to tell you what I have learned. Researchers have discovered that our brains are constantly paying attention to our surroundings.

The same chair.

The same lamp glow.

The same warmth of the cup of coffee.

The same Bible sitting on the same table.

Before we’ve consciously decided anything, our brains are already preparing for what usually happens in that place.

You already know this. Piper certainly does. The moment I pick up her leash, she’s standing at the door because she assumes we’re going somewhere together. Our brains work much the same way. 

Places matter.

Habits matter.

Little cues matter.

And suddenly I began wondering if Moses understood something we’ve largely forgotten.

Maybe the Chair Is Doing More Work Than You Think

Have you ever wondered why some mornings it feels almost impossible to settle down and read your Bible?

Maybe you’ve even thought,

“I just don’t have enough discipline.”

Friend...

I’m not so sure that’s true.

If every morning you’re trying to decide where to sit... when to read... where your Bible is... whether to answer that text... whether you should unload the dishwasher first...your willpower is working overtime. You’re asking it to do a job your environment could be helping with. 

I absolutely love this thought: 

Your chair can become your ally.

When you sit in the same place every morning, your brain begins to recognize what’s happening.

“Oh... I know this place. This is where we meet with God.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Moses pitched his tent outside the camp. Away from the cooking fires. Away from the conversations. Away from the daily distractions.

I don’t think that detail is accidental.

Then I Learned Something That Gave Me So Much Hope

As I continued reading, I came across another discovery. Researchers wanted to know what actually helps adults understand what they read. Was it vocabulary, memory, or education? No. The strongest predictor was something called sustained attention.

In other words...

Could the reader simply stay with the text? That finding encouraged me more than I can tell you. Because here’s what it means. If reading four chapters of Scripture feels difficult right now… there is nothing wrong with you. Please don’t conclude that you’re a distracted Christian. You may simply have an attention muscle that has never been trained. And muscles grow. That’s what they do.

Maryanne Wolf, who has spent her career studying how the brain learns to read deeply, says that the deep-reading circuit is built through use. In other words...

The more we practice sustained reading...

The better we become at sustained reading.

I wanted to cheer when I read that. Because it confirms something I’ve believed for years.

You are wildly capable of becoming a Bible reader. Not because you have extraordinary discipline, but because God designed your brain to grow.

God desires that we meet with Him. Moses may have set up the tent, but the Lord God entered it in order to meet with Moses. That’s the same way that it is today. I may not have to set up a tent, but He resides within my heart and loves it when I show up. There are times when I don’t, and I get a little embarrassed thinking about how I might have overlooked meeting Him. But at this phase of my life and at my age, I have been blessed with the opportunity to intentionally meet with Him early in the morning. It’s what we do together in preparation for the day ahead. The Lord redeems the time that we spend together reading Scripture, looking for repeated patterns, and adding different translations for a clearer understanding. At the end of the day, we still have supper at 5:00, even if my time allows me to linger a little longer in God’s presence. Just like Joshua did. But that is a writing for another day.

Read and Explore on Your Own

• Exodus 33:7–11 — read it slowly this week and watch for the habit hiding in the text
• Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf — maryannewolf.com/reader-come-home
• NPR Life Kit, “How to Practice Deep Reading” — npr.org/2024/04/30/1196979151/how-to-practice-deep-reading
• “Sustained attention plays a critical role in reading comprehension of adults” (Learning and Individual Differences, 2023) — sciencedirect.com

The READ Method™ by Shara Neubert

© 2026 Shara Neubert / Bible Engagement Success Strategies. All rights reserved. • sharaneubert.com