Where the Lord is at Home

    So many children’s books have to do with home.

    From Little House on the Prairie to A House is a House for Me and from Sweet Home Alaska to The Hobbit, the search for a place of comfort and belonging is universal. 

    So many of the children I have discipled have no physical home, and their real life challenges often overcome their first excited acceptance of the Gospel story. They have no foundation and no stability from which to grasp the Truths of Scripture and apply them.

    The world is increasingly unstable, with many in search of a place to call home. From the San Franciso homeless population to the million Ukrainians fleeing war, home has become an elusive wish. Broken families jeopardize even those who live in houses, making it less of a home than they would wish.

    Sin left us all without a home. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, but we were all banished from God’s Presence.

    The Truth of the Gospel is, though, that home doesn’t have to be where you live when you have made your self a home for the Lord. When you welcome Jesus in as Savior and Lord, He makes His home with you so that you never have to wander alone or helpless again.

    “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,” Jesus told His disciples.

    The Apostle Paul made clear that the end game for his discipleship efforts was edification- building a person up to be a suitable dwelling place of God, where the Lord is at home.

Is that the goal of your own personal spiritual growth? Is that the goal of your discipleship?

    Making a home involves the tangible items, like curtains, paint, furniture, and appliances, but it also includes the intangible atmosphere of home- love, welcome, care, mutual upbuilding, rest. The Lord takes care of both the tangible and intangible: He provides a brand new heart, but He also makes that heart work. 

    My husband recently installed brand new lights under my kitchen cabinets. I can really see what I’m doing when I’m cooking now. However, I can also see all of the previous messes I have made. Getting a brand new heart involves allowing the Lord to work through our previous messes.

    God’s promises are like summons to us. He is summoning us to come to Him, to relinquish what is broken beyond repair, and to be given that which is worthy for Him to inhabit.

    He calls to each of us: “Come home!”

    Maybe your heart has belonged to Him for a long time, but you are realizing that it has been too long since you allowed Him to clean house. This Lenten season is a great time to do a little house cleaning! www.sarahdixonyoung.com/lent2022