Home. My favorite place. No matter where I travel, I always miss home after just a few days. My body begins to long for the safety and the comforts I have come to love. However, I have learned that home does not evoke the same reactions for many and that really pulls at my heartstrings. Not everyone finds peace behind closed doors and not everyone finds rest and safety within the walls.
My home is a busy place. We allow many in and spend most days with a couch full of teens laughing and giggling and tables full of hungry kids. I love it! Most days... ;) Our home is a safe place, comfy and cozy is on overflow, and real life is served up daily. No perfection. Limits are tested and mistakes are made. And sure... just when I think I have covered all the bases a few things slip through the cracks. But it is still my crazy home.
The best life lesson and the best example I can leave for my girls is to learn that no matter where in the world life may take them, no matter how dire a situation they may find themselves in, that home can travel. What they allow to take space in their heart, is what flows through their veins and gives real-life to their being.
As a believer, we know that no matter the outward circumstances, no matter the lack of safety, that you can still find rest when you allow God to make your heart His home. When you let Him occupy the deepest places of your heart, it soon becomes a home away from home. A place to step away from the hurt, zone out the external noise, and find rest.
If life has left you lonely, if you are having a hard time finding rest at home, don't give up. Remember, there is a place where your deepest longings can be filled, a place where there is safety, and a place of peace to weather any storm. Open up the doors of your heart and watch as He fills your deepest parts with His amazing love.
Welcome, Home!
Here are your new keys. The doors He can unlock inside of you are priceless!
Here are 8 ways to make your heart His home today.
1. The Front Door - You must invite Him in to stay.
Who has the keys to your heart? Who are you letting come and go as they please?
Just like your home, you have free will and the ability to make choices regarding your house guests. The keys remain in your hands and you usher in your family and friends. As a mom of teens, I have a revolving door these days. It does become a delicate balance of who holds the keys. I enjoy my table full of guests and the safety of knowing everyone is safe in my home; however, it does become a very delicate balance... One I have excelled in and one I have fallen short a few times.
When you invite God in to stay, He changes your locks. His keys now hold your valuables safe, His team of security now guard your dwelling, and His peace is now on overflow. You then desire to uninvite a few guests who have not always held your best interest at heart as you long instead to fill it with genuine connections and His life-giving presence.
Romans 8:11 - "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you."
2. The Entry Way - The Passageway to your deepest parts.
I love a grand entrance. An entrance or hallway to your home should be inviting, cozy, and open. It should provide space to enter and drop your heavy loads, provide a feeling of safety, and be sprinkled with all the things you embody as it leads others straight to the heart of your home. My foyer is often sprinkled with numerous shoes - a sign of guest occupancy - and giggles are often heard echoing off the walls with the first turn of the doorknob.
Any invited guest can come through your door and can venture down your hallway. However, where they go from here is up to you. Your heart is the same way. Knowing your boundaries and only allowing God to occupy a room in the deepest part of your heart and home is your job. Don't allow others to roam free in your life or heart. Protect your passageway. It is the gateway to genuine connection and rest found only in Him.
Proverbs 3:6 - "In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 4:23 - "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
3. A Place at the Table - Come and dine with me.
Nourishment is essential to survival. What we put in our body produces outward manifestations. What we stock on the shelves of our hearts is what we devour in the good times and in the bad. What is readily available is what becomes our survival supply in seasons of lack.
You must stock up on His Word. You must allow Him to saturate your deepest parts so He can pour out His spirit in your moments of emptiness. No one will fill your cupboards for you. Take a daily inventory and be meticulous in what you allow to nourish your narrative. Only He can satisfy the loneliest voids and His well is never dry. Make time to dine with Him today.
Romans 3:20 - "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with me."
4. Living Room - Where He frames my fragments.
I love a living room. It is an inviting space where those who enter and find their way through the passageway can soon find rest. Living rooms are sprinkled with the things we hold dear and often provide framed pieces of our life well-lived and our life well-loved.
I love that God can frame your biggest disasters. He can take what you’ve shattered and create a new masterpiece. God never leaves us in pieces. Instead, He collects each and every fragment of what the world has broken, and piece by piece He delicately arranges the pieces connecting each with care and frames your fragments. The masterpiece we are left with is far greater than anything the world could ever provide.
Jeremiah 17:14 - "God, pick up the pieces. Put me back together again. You are my praise!"
5. Bedroom - Your private space with Him.
There are some places guests are not allowed to go. A place where intimacy is perfected and where we find rest. A place where His peace is our pillow, His Word is our refreshing night's sleep, and where we awake to find His presence and mercy new each and every day.
Have you created that private space just for Him? That space in your innermost being that longs deeply for Him alone. Here you will find the strength for your tomorrow by resting in Him today.
Matthew 11:28 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Lamentations 3: 22-23 - "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."
6. Bonus Room - He provides bonus space to enjoy His provisions.
Not all homes come with a bonus space. I remember living in our first home with two small kids dreaming about a house with a bonus room. A place for my girls to play, make a mess, and just enjoy a separate space from the living areas of our home. Now with teens and a new home with a bonus room, I am thankful for space where they can be teens and I can enjoy my quiet space.
The extra space in your heart and provisions in your life that begin to grow as you develop a closer walk with Christ are endless. It is a bounty that can only be experienced to truly understand the great wealth. As you make room for Him, you soon feel your heart expand as His provisions are on overflow and you begin to share those with each you meet.
Luke 6:38 - "Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
7. Open the Windows of my Heart - Let your love shine to all around me.
Windows provide light and a glimpse of the outside world. There is nothing better than watching the snow falling, the trees rustling in the distance, or the sunshine lighting a new day from the comfort of inside your home. They also allow people passing by to catch a glimpse of your inner space. And when you are stuck quaratined from COVID (speaking from personal experience today) the windows are my friend!
Hope and love are contagious and hard to hide as they fill your heart. Once your joy is complete in Him, it will radiate to those around you. The windows of your heart will soon be bursting open and letting others experience His goodness. God is the Light in the darkness and the hope in times of despair. Don't keep the joy He fills you with locked behind the shutters. Open the windows of your heart, His love will shine.
Matthew 5:16 - "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
8. Exit - No leaving home without Him.
It is scary some days to walk away from home. Struggles you know you will face, new endeavors that will require a new mindset, and the lack of control when life's blows interrupt can all make our exit from home on many days a bit intimidating.
However, with Christ as a resident of your innermost heart, home will now travel with you. No storm is bigger than the God who dwells within you. Don't fret about the day, let Him guide your steps, and watch God do the impossible day after day. He will be the blood flowing through your veins and the oxygen you need to breathe as you conquer your today.
.
Deuteronomy 31:8 - "The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
Make My Heart Your Home.
Rebuild the walls that have defined me,
as I open my heart to the only one who can refine me.
Help me to guard my innermost sacred place,
as I find rest in all the ways You embrace.
Open up the windows of my heart,
as you begin the work that only you can start.
Let your light shine bright for all to see,
the Jesus who is alive right inside of me.
Make my heart your forever home,
as I pray to make your name forever known.
Have your way inside the depths of me,
as I answer the call to all that you would have me be.
❤️,
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