PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• A couple of weeks ago, I shared that I’d changed up my morning devotion time and in addition to reading the Bible, I’m reading a spiritual growth book.
I’m still on, “They Found the Secret,” by V. Raymond Edman.
It’s a collection of 20 short bios of men and women of the faith.
Y’all, I’m not going to lie.
This book has been hard to get through.
It’s not the content. It’s the writing style.
One of the big issues I’ve had with this book is that the author assumes the reader is familiar with all these people he profiled.
I had to Google all of them except two to figure out who they were, and then I made notes at the beginning of each chapter.
Plus, it was written in the 1960s by a former president of Wheaton College and I’m either too stupid for such academic writing, or he wrote with a very specific audience in mind (and I’m not in that demographic).
Either way, I’m pushing through and am almost done.
And it’s because of stories like this morning’s that I’m glad I continued and didn’t stop reading a week ago when I was tempted to do so.
The bio I read today was on a woman named Eugenia Price who, according to my Google research, was an American author who lived between 1916-1996 (she’s one of the youngest people Edman profiled).
Without getting into the details of her life, one phrase jumped out at me this morning: “…a complete willingness to let [Jesus] be Himself in her life.”
That really stopped me and made me think…
Have I embraced that level of willingness?
We say things like “less of me, more of Him” as John the Baptist did in John 3:30.
But when we invite Jesus to live in our hearts, do we give Him permission to be Himself?
Let’s think of it like this…
When you have company over, what’s one of the first things you’re likely to say when they come to your house?
Probably something like, “Make yourself at home.”
But what if they really did?
What if, after the invitation to “make yourself at home,” they truly got comfortable in your space?
If you’re like me, the rhetorical question always has some strings attached.
So while we invite them in, there are generally some unspoken expectations.
But we haven’t asked Jesus to come over for dinner once in a while.
We asked Him to literally move in and take up residence in our hearts and lives.
Yet, how often do we stifle Him and still expect Him to conform to our expectations?
Isn’t that kind of laughable to put conditions on God’s Son who died for us?
It’s really quite brazen of us but yet, we are all tempted to do it.
What would your life look like if you surrendered those expectations and truly, from the bottom of your heart, meaning every syllable you spoke, told Jesus, “Make yourself at home,” and welcomed Him to be Himself in your life?
I am so challenged by that idea.
Today, as you pray, thank God that He can not be confined to our expectations.
Thank Him that every person within the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are bigger, better, stronger, more powerful than our finite brains can imagine.
Thank Him that He is not limited by our understanding.
And invite Jesus to be Himself in your life.
Tell Him that you realize that He’s not a house guest but that He has a permanent, eternal residence in your heart, and that you want Him to truly make your space His own.
