1 Thessalonians: 3:13
“May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones.”
In yesterday’s devotion, we looked at how our hearts are changed when we place our faith in Jesus, and that He makes a home in our hearts when we relinquish ownership to Him. Again, it’s not in the asking, for we are not asking Him to come into our heart home like a guest. Rather, He is the rightful owner, and in trusting Him, we are moving out of the way for Him to take possession of all that is rightfully His, that He purchased with His blood.
The question remains, how do we relinquish ownership of our hearts to Jesus? The first step in relinquishing ownership is to prepare our hearts for Him to be at home. We can do this by focusing on three spiritual essentials: prayer, faith, and power through the Holy Spirit:
• Prayer: come before Him with confidence as a child of God, adopted into His family; come with reverence as He is our Heavenly Father, the One with authority over our lives; come with a heart of submission to His will, acknowledging that He has a plan and purpose for our lives.
• Faith: Our walk of faith is always linked with obedience. To begin a life of obedience, we must trust that His Word is true. Jesus spoke directly of this connection 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.” In other words, “If you love Me, you will obey Me.” Period. He just won’t be as apt to curl up on the comfy chair in your heart home if you are disobedient and keep a “dirty” house—more on that tomorrow.
• Power: The moment we were born again, His Holy Spirit entered our hearts and gave us the power to live a new life; His Spirit empowers us to overcome the sins of the past and to resist the evil one. We need His power for strength to deal with suffering, challenges, and discouragement.
The scriptures remind us that the Pharisees were more concerned with looking holy on the outside until Jesus revealed their hypocrisy—their insides were full of uncleanness and lawlessness. Genuine Christianity is not a moral self-improvement program. No, God doesn’t want just improvement, but rather a total transformation, changing our hearts from the inside out. To make that happen, we need prayer, faith, and the power of the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts where Jesus would make His home.
In the meantime, let’s be clear on this: if you are a Christian, do not ever doubt that Jesus lives in your heart! You were chosen by Him and are dear to Him and your heart is where He wants to be.
Heavenly Father, how wonderful it is to know that Jesus wants to make a home in our hearts, and it’s simply a matter of our willingness to relinquish ownership. Help us to recognize that Jesus is the rightful owner, that He has a right to take possession, as He purchased our heart with His blood, but we must get out of the way. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for Your presence in our lives and hearts! In Your name we pray. Amen.
~ painting by Roisin O’Farrell
