HOME

How many of you have had your home disrupted or messed up because of outside circumstances? How does it feel when your home is not in order? Some of you may be comfortable living in disorganized areas, but none of us like our normal life rhythms to be messed up. Like many others, our home life was disrupted by the heavy rains we got in early September. For most of the month, we have had everything from our basement in our garage or on our main floor. We have also had to have kids sleep in different rooms and even on the floor. Needless to say, when everything gets crammed together, it weighs on you. Sometimes it is hard to rest because things are not quite right. This often drives us to work hard to restore order and do what we can to get things back to normal. We will even take extraordinary measures to just get things back to normal. We will make drastic changes and sacrifices to get things back to the way they need to be. Why do we do this? Because when the home is unsettled, the rest of life seems to be unsettled. 

As I contemplated all of this, the Holy Spirit challenged me with a thought: If you are so uncomfortable with a mess in your house, why are you comfortable with a mess in your heart? Do I take the same effort to make sure my heart is in order as I do to make sure my house is put back together? 

Jesus answered him, “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. — John 14:23

God is willing to make His home with us, to dwell within our hearts. Why then, are we comfortable having sin reside in our hearts? Having sin in my heart is similar to the mess that is on our main floor due to the fact that we had water in our basement. Yet, instead of working with the Lord to eradicate sin in our lives, we sometimes just pray and live with it as a normal part of life. We justify it and make excuses for it and continue to live with a mess in our hearts. I understand that none of us will be perfect, and we will not come to complete victory over sin until we are with Christ in heaven. However, that is not an excuse to casually let “acceptable” sins take up residence in our hearts. Whether we realize it or not, sin in our hearts causes our spirit to be disturbed. We may work hard at ignoring the unrest in our hearts, but it is there. Jesus sacrificially gave His life up for us on the cross so that we no longer have to be slaves to sin. Therefore, we should make every effort to keep His home in our hearts clean. 

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.— 1 Corinthians 6:19-20