If you want to see ME, stop by any time. If you want to see my HOUSE, make an appointment. I have aspirations of my house looking like a spread in Better Homes & Gardens magazine, but it definitely is not. An unexpected visitor most likely would find blankets strewn on the sofa, dishes littering the counter top, books stacked on the end tables, papers and mail clustered on the table, and laundry piled in front of the washing machine. I guess it’s what they called the lived–in look. This is my norm. My home. Not picture perfect in any way.
As I sat down in my recliner for my morning quiet time, and grabbed a blanket from the floor, I was greeted with Jesus words recorded in John 14:23. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Author Jim Maxim continued with these thoughts: “Jesus Christ spoke these glorious words of promise to his disciples: to the one who loves Him and follows His teaching, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit would come into his heart and make a home in him forever! It is astounding that God himself would make his home in us.”
A question whirled through my head as I glanced at the clutter around me. Why would anyone want to make a home with me? Martha Stewart would be appalled.
My morning continued with a walk to the barn and I pointed out to Jesus that if he really wanted to make a home with me a little clutter was the least of my problems. Sometimes “home” resembled my sheep pen at that moment, ripe with the smells of urine, manure, and damp wool; gross and disgusting, not neat and clean.
Now I realize when Jesus stated his desire to make a home with us, he wasn’t talking about getting a mortgage together, moving furniture, and decorating walls. He wants to do life with us, be in relationship with us. He wants to live in our hearts and be Lord of our lives.
I felt convicted that as much as I want my heart to be pristine and put-together, it is often littered with anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness. There are foul odors of envy, pride, resentment, and self-righteousness. Like the apostle Paul states in Romans 7:15, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very things I hate.”
In his booklet “My Heart-Christ’s Home” Robert Boyd Munger says “I will never forget the evening I invited Jesus into my heart. He came into the darkness of my heart and turned on the light. He built a fire in the cold hearth and banished the chill. He started music where there had been stillness and harmony where there had been discord. He filled the emptiness with his own loving fellowship. I have never regretted opening the door to Christ and I never will. This, of course, is the first step in making the heart Christ’s home. He has said, ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me’ (Rev 3:20). If you want to know the reality of God and the personal presence of Jesus Christ at the innermost part of your being, simply open wide the door and ask him to come in and be your Savior and Lord.”
Munger continues, “After Christ entered my heart, in the joy of that new-found relationship, I said to him, ‘Lord, I want this heart of mine to be yours. I want you to settle down here and be fully at home. I want you to use it as your own. Let me show you around and point out some of the features of the home so that you may be more comfortable. I want you to enjoy our time together.”
I have several copies of “My Heart-Christ’s Home” if you would like to read more about a home that’s fit for the Lord. It is my pray for each of you, that you would open your heart to Jesus and allow him to make his home with you. Trust me, he’ll help you with whatever housecleaning needs to be done.
Erin Jacobsma