TODAY’S VERSE
Ephesians 3:16
…that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being… (ESV)
What kind of host are you? When you have people over to your house, do you keep your bedroom door open or closed? Do you designate a brand new “junk drawer” a few hours before everyone shows up to get rid of some clutter? Are certain rooms off-limits? Or do you just let your house be as it is and let guests move about as they please?
I wish I were in the latter category, but I’m just not. I typically do the frantic declutter and vacuum within an hour of guests arriving, which is so common to many of us. And there’s ultimately nothing wrong with that when it comes to hosting people in our homes. Sometimes, hosting regularly is the accountability we need to keep our houses clean. But when it comes to our spiritual lives, we may want to consider being a different type of host.
We proverbially open the front door of our “home” when we accept the Lordship of Jesus and decide to follow Him with our lives. But just because Jesus is in our house doesn’t mean we’ve let Him see the innermost parts — including our pantry or closet(s). And that’s exactly what Paul is praying for in this letter.
He’s praying that Jesus would take up His residence in the inmost parts of our lives so that we may experience this reality: Jesus isn’t disgusted by our clutter or mess because He actually wants to clean it all up Himself.
What if you stopped trying to keep your life in order when you interacted with your Heavenly Father and just asked Him to walk right into the messiest parts of your heart? You aren’t going to impress Him with the decluttered version of your life, but you will exhaust yourself trying.
APPLICATION
Take some time today to be raw with God in prayer. Verbally express to God all the things that feel out of control in your life: questions, doubts, fears, struggles, wounds, distractions, and so on. Let Him into your innermost thoughts and ask Him to reveal Himself to you in those places.
PRAYER
Use Psalm 139:23-24 as a guided prayer prompt in response to today’s application.