Hearing God Through the YearSample

God’s Home in Us

“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:23 (NIV)

God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 (NIV) 

Sometimes today it seems that our personal relationship with God is treated as a long-distance arrangement in which Jesus and his Father listen to us from afar—maybe nodding and smiling. But doesn’t a personal relationship involve more than that? A mere benefactor, however powerful, kind and thoughtful, is not the same thing as a friend. Jesus says, “I have called you friends” (John 15:15 NIV) and “Look, I am with you every minute, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20, paraphrase).

The abiding of the Son and the Father in the faithful heart involves more than communication or conversation, but it surely does involve these too, in a manner and measure our Lord considers to be appropriate. The Spirit who inhabits us is not mute, restricting himself to an occasional nudge, a brilliant image or a case of goosebumps. It’s reasonable to assume that this personal relationship of friends would include individualized communication—words and ideas God communicates uniquely to each friend. 

MEDITATION: Reread John 14:23 aloud slowly:

“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” 

Close your eyes and savor the idea of “home.” Why would God want to make a home in creatures such as us? Why would you want to have God make a home in you? What does this cause you to want to say to God?