“I pray… that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”
Ephesians 3:16-17
I remember it vividly! It was a Sunday night and Lincoln’s Birthday. I was seven years old and steped out timidly from our church pew to go forward to the altar. There at the altar, I asked Jesus to come into my heart. I do not remember anything spectacular happening that night. I heard no voices. There were no thrills and chills. But I do remember that night as beginning my walk with Jesus.
Now, so many years later, after many ups and downs, I know of no greater wonder: Jesus lives in the believer! I seek still to know more of what that means and to live in His love. I pray with Paul, for you and me, that Christ may be at home in our hearts…”through faith”. Paul knows that faith opens the door to Jesus, and it is through faith that we grasp and experience Christ living within us. It is through faith that we live into “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” given to us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3). “Never, never in the history of the world has it been or can it be that a longing towards Him shall be a longing thrown back unsatisfied upon itself. You have but to trust, and you possess.” (Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians)
As Jesus settles in, making His home in us, we discover in time that He is not content to be our guest. Jesus wants to be Lord! That is because Jesus so loves us and longs to cleanse and renew us, making us holy temples for God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Robert Munger writes in his booklet, My Heart: Christ’s Home, about the day he dropped to his knees asking Jesus to be not just a guest, but Lord. Munger remembers that crucial day: “A thought came to me. ‘Lord, is there any chance that You would take over the management of the whole house and operate it for me?… Would You take the responsibility to keep my life as it ought to be?… I eagerly signed the house over to Him alone for time and eternity. ‘Here,’ I said, ‘Here it is, all that I am and all that I have, forever. Now you run the house.'”
Munger’s little book, much read around the world, reminds us that we do not have the power to cleanse and renew our lives; that’s why we have a Savior! I have argued with Jesus many times about who should run my life. A little prayer that helps me each time I struggle with Him is simply: “Lord, I am willing that you make me to be willing.” And each day, I renew my decision to yield my life to my Savior and King.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
“Prayer does not change God, but changes us.” Anonymous
