My heart, Christ's home

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. (Ephesians 3:16–17)
 
I became a Christian on the second day of college. After experiencing a summer youth group where I gradually came to see the reality of God and His desire for a relationship with me, the sharp dichotomy of what felt to me like the emptiness of college parties led me to my knees in my dorm room, telling God “I know where I belong, and it’s with you.”

Two weeks later, I found myself at a meeting of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, where I began my journey as a believer. My heart and motivations had been transformed by the Holy Spirit which God had given to me, and I had a hunger to learn all I could about God and to know Him better. As I wandered over to the book table at the back of the room, I found a little booklet that became my first introduction to discipleship:  My Heart, Christ’s Home, by Robert Boyd Munger. Written in 1951, this simple work used the picture of Jesus dwelling in our hearts that is found in Ephesians 3:16-17 and John 14:23 to imagine our hearts as a home, with various rooms representing the different areas of our life, and to consider what it would look like to let Jesus dwell in those rooms.

For example: there was the library, or the study, those books and images on which I focused my mind, those inputs that were forming my beliefs and imagination. (Since this booklet was written in 1951, of course, there are so many more visual and audio inputs vying for the attention of our eyes and mind). As Jesus takes up residence in our heart, He asks us to fill our study, our mind, with His Word, with books and images and music and teachings that will point us to Him, renew our minds (Romans 12:2), and help bring our thoughts into captivity to Him (2 Corinthians 10:5).

There was the living room, the relationships of my life, where Jesus wanted to be first, to meet with me every morning. There was the rec room, where I would spend time on activities and amusements that could either glorify Him or be a meaningless pursuit. There was the workroom, where Jesus would help me develop the talents and skills which He had given to me so that He might use me for good in His kingdom and in the lives of others. There was the bedroom, the most intimate area of my life, of which He also wanted to be Lord. And there was the hall closet, where I kept things hidden that I didn’t want anyone to know about, things from my old life that I had not yet parted with, which Jesus wanted to clean out.

The booklet ends with a transfer of the title of the house, as the author asks Jesus to no longer be a guest in the house, but to become the owner, the Lord and master of the house.

It’s a simple analogy, seeing our hearts and lives as the home in which Jesus dwells by His Holy Spirit. But it is also an apt picture of discipleship. The nineteenth and twentieth century Dutch theologian and prime minister Abraham Kuyper once said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over al, does not cry, Mine!” And this sovereignty is meant to extend to every square inch of our lives. What room of your house, what part of your life, do you need to give Jesus not only access to but authority over today?