Your Heart – Is It A Comfortable Place For The Lordship Of Christ?
READ EPHESIANS 3:14-21
MEDITATION: To make Christ at home in your heart, you need faith (3:17a). The aim of the Spirit strengthening us with power in the inner self is “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” It is clear that Christ indwells every believer through the Holy Spirit (Gal. 2:20). If Christ does not live in you, you are not a Christian, no matter how religious you may be or how strongly you affirm the Christian creeds (Rom. 8:9-10).
So, why then in our text does Paul pray that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith? He was writing to Christian believers. The only conclusion is that Paul is talking about something more than Christ indwelling us at the point of salvation. He is talking about Christ being at home in our hearts. He is talking about having close fellowship with Christ. Let’s look at this from two angles:
Christ comes to be at home in our hearts as we live by faith. Biblical faith is not passive. Rather, it is an active reliance on God and His promises, often in the face of impossible circumstances. Biblical faith is always linked with obedience. If you trust God, you obey God. To obey God, you must trust that His Word is true. Jesus spoke of the link between our obedience and His being at home in our hearts in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” Christ is not at home with a disobedient Christian who keeps a dirty house (heart).
Christ comes to dwell in our hearts by progressively taking lordship over every area of our lives. The verb that Paul uses refers to a permanent indwelling or residence of Christ in the heart. He means that we should welcome Christ into every aspect of our lives, so that there is no known area of our lives that we would be uncomfortable having Christ share it with us.
Perhaps no one has put it better than Robert Munger, in his booklet, “My Heart, Christ’s Home”. He tells of how after Christ entered his heart, in the joy of that newfound relationship, he said, “Lord, I want this heart of mine to be yours. I want to have you settle down here and be perfectly at home. Everything I have belongs to you. Let me show you around and introduce you to the various features of the home so that you may be more comfortable and that we may have fuller fellowship together.” So, he took Christ into the study or library, which represents the things that the mind focuses on. The Lord had a bit of cleanup work to do there, getting rid of books and magazines, as well as some shameful pictures on the wall. They moved on to the dining room, which represented eating worldly fare rather than doing the will of God. Worldly pleasures do not satisfy in the long run. Our food should be to do His will.
From there, they moved to the drawing room, or sitting room. It had a fireplace, overstuffed chairs, a bookcase, and a quiet atmosphere. They agreed to meet there each morning to start the day together. At first, they spent some wonderful hours there. But then, as pressures mounted, the time began to be shortened. Then, Munger got so busy that he started skipping these times. One morning as he was rushing out the door, he saw that the door to the drawing room was ajar. There was a fire in the fireplace and the Lord was sitting in there alone. He said, “Master, have you been here all these mornings?” “Yes,” said the Lord, “I told you that I would be here every morning to meet with you.” The Lord went on to explain that the problem was, Munger viewed the quiet time only as a means for his own spiritual progress, rather than as a time to meet and fellowship with the living Lord. They moved on to the workshop, where the Lord showed him how He could work through him to produce good works. Then, the Lord asked about the playroom. He was hoping that the Lord wouldn’t bring that up. There were certain friendships and activities that he just didn’t feel comfortable inviting the Lord to join in.
But finally he realized that he would have no joy unless the Lord remodeled that room of the house also. He thought that the Lord had finally finished the remodeling and was comfortable living there. But then one day he came home to find the Lord waiting at the door. He said, “There is a peculiar odor in the house. There is something dead in here, in the hall closet.” Munger knew about that closet, but he had the key to it and wanted to keep it off limits. He certainly didn’t want Christ to see what was in there. In fact, he was angry that Christ had mentioned it. After all, he had given the Lord access to the library, the dining room, the drawing room, the workshop, and the playroom. Now He was trying to pry into a small closet! He thought, “This is too much! I’m not going to give him the key!”
But the Lord said, “Well, I can’t stay in here with that foul odor. I’ll make my bed out on the porch until this is cleaned up.” Munger says, “When you have come to know and love Christ, the worst thing that can happen is to sense his fellowship retreating from you. I had to surrender. ‘I’ll give you the key,’ I said sadly, ‘but you’ll have to … clean it out. I haven’t the strength to do it.” The Lord said, “I know you haven’t. Just give me the key and authorize me to take care of it and I will.” Finally, Munger signed over the title deed to the Lord and said, “You run the house!”
That is how God works in our hearts. He wants to move from room to room until every area of our lives is suitable for His dwelling place.
Are you acting as a good host to Jesus Christ in your life? Are you making your heart a comfortable place for the holy Son of God to dwell? Are there any hidden closets in your life that you haven’t allowed Christ to clean out? How can we discover these areas? To do it, you must pray. You must experience the power of God’s Spirit in your inner person. And, you must obey Christ by faith as you allow Him progressively to exercise His lordship over every nook and cranny of your heart.
ACTION: Identify those aspects of your life that you have not completely turned over to the Lordship of Christ Jesus . Be ready to hand over the keys to all the closets that you are still keeping locked.
PRAY THE MODEL PRAYER FOR EXTENDING THE KINGDOM OF GOD
