A home for your heart

If you could ask something from God, what would you ask? David tells us what he would ask for. He longs to live in the house of God. My daughter recently invited a friend to spend the night with her. They did not have classes the next day, so we allowed them to stay up all they wanted.

Postponing the time to go to bed for a couple of seven-year-old girls is like releasing a convict from the death row. They both surpassed me.
I slept in my chair when I woke up, I realized it was almost midnight and they were still awake. "Well, girls," I informed them, "it's better that we go to sleep." They moaned all the time as they changed their clothes, brushed their teeth and went to bed. At that time our little guest asked to call her mom. At first we did not want to, but then his chin trembled, his eyes clouded, and knowing that we were a few moments away from an explosion, we passed him the phone.

I could imagine what was happening on the other side of the line: the phone rings in the dark, a mother, above her husband, fast asleep, takes the receiver.

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The little girl did not even say "Hi". "Mommy, I want to go home." With a plush bear in one hand and the phone in the other, he pleaded his case. I was afraid to wake up in a strange room. This was not his house. He wanted his bed, his pillow and, above all, his mother.

I do not blame her When I travel, the hardest part of the trip is going to sleep. The pillow never looks good, the sheets are very ... very stiff. Besides, who knows who slept there last night? The curtains never close as to prevent the neon light from penetrating through the window. I need to get up early, but ... can I trust that the operator will wake me up in time?

After all, that night in Boise nobody woke me up and ... there go my thoughts that cover everything from the visit of Denalyn to the doctor going through the flight of tomorrow, to the tax declaration of the season. I would call home, but it's too late. I would go for a walk, but they might assault me. I could ask for food to be brought to my room, but I already ate. I would go home, but, well, I'm supposed to be an adult. Finally I sit on the bed, turn on the TV and start watching sports until my eyes burn and then after a while, I fall asleep.

I associate it with Sara's friend. When the body rest is reached, there is no house like one's.

I also associate it with the psalmist David. When it comes to soul rest, there is no place like the Great House of God. "What I ask of God, what I most desire," he wrote, "is the privilege to meditate in his Temple, to live in his presence every day of my life, to delight in his incomparable perfections and glory. There I will be when the tribulations come. He will hide me. He will put me on high rock. " (Psalm 27.4-5, the Bible a day).

If you could ask something from God, what would you ask? David tells us what he would ask for. He longs to live in the house of God. I emphasize the word live, because it deserves to be stressed. David does not want to talk. He does not want a cup of coffee in the back corridor. He does not ask for a meal, nor does he want to spend a night in the house of God. He wants to move with Him ... forever. Ask for your own room ... permanent. He does not want to settle in the house of God, he longs to retire there. It does not look for a temporary task, but a residence for a lifetime.

When David says: "In your house, O Lord, I will live forever" (Psalm 23.6, The Daily Bible), simply says that he never wants to take a step away from God. He wants to remain in the environment, in the atmosphere, in the awareness that he is in the house of God, wherever he is.

The Lord's Prayer is the floor plan of the House of God: a step-by-step description of how God meets our needs when we are in Him. This prayer describes everything that happens in a healthy home. Protection, instruction, forgiveness, provision ... everything happens under the roof of God.

"So, why are not there more people who feel protected, forgiven or educated?", You might ask.

My answer is as simple as direct is the question. Most have not learned to live in the house. Oh, we visited it. We come for the day or we arrive for a meal. But, dwell in it? This is the desire of God.

Remember the promise of his Son: "He who loves me heeds my word; and my Father will love him, and my Father and I will come to live with him. " (John 14.23). He wants to be the one in whom "we live, we move and we exist" (Acts 17.28, NIV).

Now I want to finish with an example of how this prayer can be a home for your heart. I still have a long way to go, but I am trying to learn to dwell in the Great House of God. The last seven days I took note of the moments when I took strength from somewhere in the house.

On Monday I was tired, physically exhausted, so I entered the chapel and said: "Yours is the power" and the Father reminded me that it was good to rest.

On Tuesday I had more to do than hours have the day. Instead of giving in to stress, I went into the kitchen and ordered our daily bread. It gave me strength and I managed to do everything.

On Wednesday I was in the kitchen again. I needed some ideas for a children's book. I went to the table and made a request. At the time of going to sleep I had the manuscript in draft.

We had a strategic staff meeting this week. We started with half an hour of prayer and worship during which I entered the observatory and then the chapel. I asked God that I had made the heavens to give me the assurance that the meeting was going well, and he did. I asked the holy God who is above us to guide me and he did it.

On one occasion I was impatient. I entered the corridor to ask God for grace to discover that I had already given it. At another moment I felt tempted, however, at the appropriate time a person with a word with a word of wisdom entered the room, and I remembered the thickness of the walls. Then I felt frustrated by a person's opinion. I did not know what to answer, so I went into the study, opened the Word and 1 Corinthians 13 reminded me: "Love is patient, it is kind".

I do not want to leave a false impression. There have been times when I have been worried instead of worshiping, there have been times when I told God what I had to have instead of trusting Him to fill my plate. But every day I learn to live in the Great House of God.

I hope you too. Take Paul's advice and pray "at all times". Make it your purpose never to leave the house of God. When you are overwhelmed by the accounts to be paid, go into God's kitchen. When you feel bad for making a mistake, look to the ceiling. When you visit a new client, pray silently upon entering the office: "Come your kingdom to this place." When you are in a tense meeting, enter mentally in the oven room and pray: "May the peace of heaven sit on the earth" when it is difficult to forgive the wife, take the check of the grace that God has given you.

My prayer for you is the same as Paul's: "Change our ways of thinking" (Romans 12.2). May the Holy Spirit transform your understanding. God allow you to feel so comfortable in your home that you never leave it. When you find yourself in another house, do what Sara's friend did: call home. Tell your Father that you can not rest in another house other than his own. He will not be bothered by the call. He will be waiting by the telephone.