Take a second and look around your home. A home is the place we live, the place we feel the most comfortable. Your home might be the house you live in, it might be another place you spend most of your time in, it could be big or small, but it is home. Where am I going with this? Well, when you look around and feel happy, it’s mostly when everything is in place the way you had put it. The flowers are maybe in the corner, the guitar hunched up against your bed, you have a cute seating area with your Bible where you pray and do your Bible study, or whatever design you have in place. And it’s amazing. Usually, that’s when I feel like my life is all put together and I’m being productive: my home is ‘homing.’ And it might also be the same for you.

But there are times when the home becomes messy because maybe in a rush you didn’t lay your bed that or you couldn’t push your chair in or put shoes on the shoe rack. Just imagine a slightly messy room. That’s still livable right? In my head, I would think when I get back from class, I’ll work on it. It’ll take at most 5 minutes and everything is back to its state and bam equilibrium. You know, that’s often how we think it’ll play out. However, when you get back, that task is pushed on to later and over time, that later, becomes a never and your room or house, starts to look and feel unlike home. For me and many of you maybe, that’s when we feel out of it.

Just like our personal spaces and homes, our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19 – 20) and Christ dwells in our hearts ( Eph 3:17). This is true and has been said in the Bible but I finally came to understand one day in my room while I was on a study abroad. I looked around my room and I saw the corners of this room and I thought, “I need to do a deep clean of this place.” So I did. It took me a few hours but the result was amazing once I was done. And that’s when it hit me: a lot of times, I would leave my heart in a state that was not ‘clean’ and just like keep living, ignoring the fact that it needed a deep clean. This deep clean would not just involve prayer of forgiveness, but there would also be some work involved in transforming and ensuring that it becomes the best place for the Spirit of God to dwell in. That work would include praying constantly, reading the Bible more consistently, letting go of idols, both known and unknown and just allowing God to work in and through me. For many of us, maybe we have just realized it or we’ve been ignoring it or running away like me but we don’t have to anymore. God gives us grace and strength to go through the uncomfortable because that’s how we can make the change.

That’s how I am here today writing about this. The good news is, once we come to Christ and accept Him, we become new creatures. The old is passed and all things have become new. Our identities are now rooted in Christ and that’s the simple truth. (2 Corinthians 5:17). Now, we’d need to work to grow and be transformed (Rom 12:1 – 2). It may seem hard at first but God is with us through and through, so don’t give up! Our journeys with God are personal so our ‘cleaning’ is also personal: meaning the rate and process for everyone is different. The most important thing, is to make improvements even if it feels tiny, as long as we are growing to become more Christlike.

At this point, I encourage you to examine yourself and the state of your heart today. God loves you and me so much, more that we can ever imagine and He will accept you as you are. Change starts from the mind. If you’d like to take that step to make a change and allow God in to work in and through you, pray this prayer:

Dear God,

I thank You for Your word today that You love me just the way I am. Lord, forgive me for my wrongs. Give me the strength to go through the uncomfortable with You and make a heart a pleasant place for You to live in as You transform me with Your word. In Jesus name Amen.

Remember, You are not alone and God’s got your back. Here are some songs to express this!

My Heart Your Home by Women of Faith

Have my hear by Maverick City (feat Chandler Moore and Chris Brown)

Refiner by Chandler Moore & Steffany Gretzinger