"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done - kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love." John 15:9-10 (The Message)
Has there ever been a time in your life when you were in your home but you didn't really feel "at home", or when you found yourself feeling at home at a place that was not your home? Seems strange, but the fact of the matter is that the feeling of being "at home" somewhere has nothing to do with the location or structure itself. Being at home has to do with the feelings that are evoked from or within that particular place - feelings of warmth, safety, security, comfort and love. When those feelings are absent or compromised in some way, then the feeling of being at home seems to disappear, leaving us feeling uneasy, disconnected or even "homesick".
As believers, we were designed to feel "homesick" in our lives on this earth. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-2 (NLT), Paul writes, "For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down -- when we die and leave these bodies -- we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing." No matter how comfortable we may be here, a piece of us longs to be reunited with our Heavenly Father.
The beautiful thing about this is that we can feel at home at any time by connecting with God through the Holy Spirit because His very spirit took up residence and made a home within us the instant we believed. 1 Corinthians 6:19 (ESV) says, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have received from God?" Our body is a house within which the Holy Spirit dwells. Because of His infinite love for us, He left His very spirit behind for us after Christ's ascension into Heaven, so that we could be at home with Him in this body until we put on our heavenly bodies.
There is a small catch, however. Our original verse in John 15:9 states that "If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love..." There is a condition. We must obey him to be close to Him and remain at home in His love. However, this obedience is not done out of obligation. It is an overflow of the heart, done out of love and adoration. When we love with reckless abandon, we want nothing more than to please and make the object of our love happy. It is this kind of selfless or agape love that brings us to that place of intimacy with God where we have a true desire for obedience, and where we can fully make ourselves at home in His infinite love. And this kind of being "at home" has nothing to do with a location or structure, but has everything to do with the posture of our heart. In this sense, home really is where the heart is!
If you are interested in improving your intimacy with God, join us for our upcoming "Face Down on Your Mat" Holy Yoga retreat August 20-22. For more information, click here.
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