Home

What come to mind when you think of home? What is home to you? 

More than likely it is a good place – a place where you feel safe. Home should be a place where you can kick off your shoes, curl up on a couch, and relax after a long day, or returning from a holiday or work trip.

For some people however, home is anything but a restful, secure place. It may be an abusive place. A place lacking safety. For others, it can be a place void of peace and filled with stress. Then there are those who don’t even have a home to call their own. These people either live on the street or a borrowed couch in another person’s home. All of these people living in situations like these have not experienced what ‘real’ home is like.

At times, circumstances can find ourselves in situations like these for a season – whether that be a physical home, a spiritual home or simply ‘what is my place in this world’ home. If this is the case, how can we experience ‘true home’ at all times? We all crave a place to call ‘home’. A place we can hang up our coat and say, ‘I’m home’.

Why do we crave a place we call ‘home’?

It’s because we desire a place where we feel accepted and greeted with unconditional love from the ones who have our back – those people in our world we love and trust – be it family, friends or a partner. We want home to be a place where we can kick off our shoes and get comfortable without judgement. A place where we can walk in just as we are – tired, sweaty, dirty or hungry – and know that we don’t have to get cleaned up before sharing a coffee or tea with those loved ones who genuinely ask us; ‘How was your day?’.

Home, our safe place, our place of comfort – where we can be ourselves.

It should be no different being at ‘home’ with our Father God. He waits for us to fling wide His heavenly door, jump on His couch, and tell Him; ‘I’m home and I have so much to tell you today.’

Sadly, this is not what we do. Often we hesitate to come daily into His presence.

Why is that? Why do we question being at home with God? The reason being, is we often think being home with God comes with conditions.

What will He think of me today? Will He be greeting me with a scowl or a smile today? Will He be pleased with my performance today? Have I done enough for Him today? Prayed enough, read His word enough, been kind enough? Will He be proud of me today? Do I have to be on my best behaviour or can I really relax in His presence? Should I come home dressed in the right clothes or can I really kick my shoes off here? Will I have to just be grateful I am here or am I truly family? Can I tell Him how I really feel today? Is He listening to me and interested in what I want to share?

The truth is, we can come directly into God’s presence and be fed and refreshed by our Father every day, no matter what our day has been like.

When we belong to Christ, AND we do, we can be assured of what the word says in John 15:4.

⁴ ‘Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. John 15:4 MSG

In other words God is saying: I make myself at home with you. I abide with you, so make yourself at home with me. Abide (dwell, lodge) with me.

In everyday terms this is what He is telling us to do:

When you walk into My home, know that My home is your home. So dwell, lodge, abide in Me. Relax and be yourself. When you at home in me, I am going to greet you with My unconditional love. When you come in, you can kick off your shoes and get comfortable with Me. I will always feed YOU and refresh YOU. YOU can lay your head on MY chest and rest BECAUSE YOU ARE AT HOME in ME. Let’s sit down together and you can chat about your day, but let Me share My thoughts with you also.

⁴ ‘Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me’. John 15:4 MSG

We are God’s family. Abiding in Him and Him in us is how we are meant to live, and then we will live a fruitful and full of life. 

‘He who dwells in the shelter (or the home) of the Most High will remain secure and rest in the shadow of the Almighty [whose power no enemy can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust [with great confidence, and on whom I rely]!”’ Psalm 91: 1-2 AMP

Don’t allow the enemy or those little voices in your head tell you that you cannot be at home with the one who loves more than any other – every day.

Deb