Make Yourself at Home

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, 

and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23

In the past 4 years, we’ve called technicians to our home to make repairs: once, in the dead of summer when our A/C gave up, and then, in the dead of winter, when our furnace quit. In both situations, whether sweating or shivering, I was pretty desperate for the problem to be solved asap so I could get back to normal life. 

When he came, I didn’t say to the repairman, “Make yourself at home - here are the keys. Wander around, check out each room, and stay a while. The pantry is yours, the fridge is yours. If you feel like redecorating, go for it.” No. I didn’t invite him to settle in; I just needed him to work on one thing, and I pointed immediately to it. I was not trying to make him comfortable. Actually, I was expecting him to make ME more comfortable.

And I wonder how closely that parallels our relationship with God? We invite Him to fix something that’s broken so we can be comfortable again and get back to our normal life, but we’re not asking him to come make himself at home.

That God is willing to make himself at home with us should be shocking. 

God, at home with me?! 

God himself smiling and sighing, “Ah, now this feels like home”?!

Jesus’ statement in John 14:23 follows a promise he had made just a few verses earlier: “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”  John 14:2

The Greek word in verse 2 for rooms is the same word used in verse 23 for home (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words). It means abode or dwelling-place.

While we wait for Jesus to prepare a home for us, we can live in such a way that God makes his home in us, here and now. Jesus explains how: it’s obedience to His word that signals genuine love, flinging the door open, handing God the keys, and inviting him to settle in. 

Obedience to His word doesn’t bring God the Holy Spirit into my life, but it’s the invitation for him to be more than a repairman. Obedience lovingly says, “Come check out each room of my heart, stay awhile, renovate and redecorate, and do whatever it takes to make yourself at home.”

The Weight of Waiting

This summer, the boys and I often dropped in at our local YMCA. On the way to my trusty treadmill, I’d pass the weight-lifters and try not to stare at the contorted faces under the strain of their routine (AKA torture). Their effort was audible most of the time, so I’d quickly put my earbuds in place to drown out the sound of their exhaustion. 

In reality, a little pain, sweat, and tears are to be expected at the Y.  We anticipate spending energy and bearing some discomfort for the health benefits that we’ll gain in return. We know that time + resistance = strength.

What I so easily forget is that time + resistance in life builds strength too - and that resistance usually comes in the form of waiting.

Waiting is a workout for our faith, but I don’t usually wait like I’ve just entered faith’s YMCA, and I don’t willingly sign up for that membership. There’s no sign overhead alerting me to the fact that I’ve just stepped foot into a gymnasium full of opportunities and equipment that will strengthen my faith over time. 

If I don’t wait like it’s a workout,

fatigue will come as a surprise.

I’ll chide myself, lose motivation, and I’ll quit. 

Time gradually increases the weight and adds in more reps that won’t crush my faith; instead, time chisels it. While waiting, faith pushes back to become shapely and strong, capable of so much more than its previous limits.

If you’re waiting on God, he’s attentive and knowledgeable and deeply committed to increasing your faith’s stamina, like a personal trainer at the Y.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength. 

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:28-31