Does God feel welcome in you, mama?

Does he feel at home?  This morning in my quiet time, I was reflecting on Christ living in me, the Holy Spirit dwelling in me.  I wondered if he felt “at home” there or if my soul is cluttered, dusty, and inhospitable.  I know the Holy Spirit will never leave me, but it did cause me to reflect.  Awhile ago, I read a verse out of my Greek Expanded Translation of the New Testament that said this:

“On this account I bow my knees to the Father from who every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant to you according to the wealth of His glory, with power to be strengthened through the Spirit in the inward man, that the Christ might finally settle down and feel completely at home in your hearts through your faith; in love having been firmly rooted and grounded in order that you may be able to grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and width and height and depth and to know experientially the love of the Christ which surpasses all experiential knowledge in order that you may be filled up to the measure of the fullness of God.”  Ephesians 3:14-19 (emphasis mine)

I don’t know about you, but I DO long to know, experientially, the full love of Christ and to be “filled up to the measure of the fullness of God”.  If you’re a believer and you never stop to think about the Holy Spirit feeling “completely at home in your hearts through your faith”, Ephesians 3 prompts you to consider it!

Picture your heart as the home of the Holy Spirit…the place where Christ dwells.

Is it dusty with needless, perfunctory religiosity?  Is it cluttered with anxiety, doubt, fear, and distractions?  Is it muddied with impurities from the world, sensualities, and worldly “truths”?  Or maybe it’s tainted with judgmentalism, criticism, cynicism, and self-righteousness.  Perhaps it’s “outdated” with apathy and complacency.

Whatever the state of your “home”, if you’re a believer in Jesus, he dwells there.

Each of us struggle with these and there are times when we are completely unaware of just cluttered or dusty our heart has become.  But we can do something…or rather, God can do something in us.  We can pray for God to help US help HIM to feel at home.  We can ask God, through the Holy Spirit, to bring to our attention the areas that need to be dusted, swept, decluttered, and cleaned and to bring in whatever he’d like that’s new!  We can ask him to open our eyes to how he would feel more “at home” in our hearts…and then give him permission to DO IT!

After all, he’s the Designer of your very soul, and he not only knows what’s better for you than you do, but he knows what’s absolutely best.  And that’s what he wants for you!  Do you trust him in that?

If you’re ready to trust him with that, God will by no means wait to answer, so be ready!  Here’s a simple prayer you can pray (as well as a free printable version of the prayer below):

O God, make your home in me. Dwell in me. Settle down, you are welcome here.  Clean out the old me and declutter. Sweep out the apathy, complacency, and stale, dusty faux-faith.  Remove what you don’t want and replace it with what’s finer. Out with the hand-me-downs and in with the brand new.  Sometimes I think I know what’s better, but YOU are my designer, and you have excellent taste. You know what’s best and beautiful. Replace it with YOU, God–your Spirit in me. And make your passion in me so attractive that others want to know who lives here. Because you do, and you feel welcome. And you’re in the business of making all things new & beautiful in their time.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

For the printable version, click here.