Welcome

“We can thrive — and even offer life-giving rest to others — because God is at home in us.” Bonnie Gray Faith Barista blog






As I work in the medical field there is a diagnosis that comes up often with many patients, it is called “failure to thrive.” It is seen in those who have come to the end of their disease and are feeling too tired to be able to fight their disease anymore. It could be anything from old age, end stage renal, cancer, or whatever it doesn’t matter. The fact is they have reached a point where they don’t think they can go on any further and are diagnosed with “Failure to thrive.”






As Christians we should never get to that point where our physical body gets. To the point we are diagnosed with “failure to thrive.” With God at home in us we don’t have to feel as if we can’t go on any further. Often we get to the point where we would like to throw up our hands and say, “No, more. I can’t go any further” but we don’t have to listen to ourselves. Going to the local physician won’t keep that spunk in us but going to the Great Physician can.






Last week when our assignment was to write about our favorite scripture or quote I chose Philippians 4:13. The title of my piece was called, “I can, through Christ.” This past week when I was slipping quickly into a downward mood heading for the “failure to thrive” category I opened up my internet and the first thing I saw was my own blogspot. Staring me in the face were my own words, “I can, through Christ.”






Choking on my own words I had to re-read what I wrote myself. They are words we all need to be reminded of telling us we are capable of many things thanks to the Lord making his home in our heart. Our problem is we clutter the home of our heart with so many things that He can’t either get in through the debris in the front yard or He can’t get out because of the clutter of our collections on the inside.






It would do us well to clean the house where Christ is to make His home, our heart. Recently my husband and I put in new carpet in the living room. After the task was done and the big furniture was returned I marveled over how nice it looked uncluttered from all the extra stuff that was in there before. Reluctant to fill it back up with all the wrong things I got rid of what didn’t need to be.






It’s our responsibility to do that to our spiritual hearts. The point is, “we can” we can thrive and help others as well as long as we got our own spiritual homes in order. Properly putting God in His place instead of making it so He has to fight His way through the “extra stuff” we are reluctantly to dispose of. Such things as our attitudes, bad habits, disobedience, pride, and so much more.






“Welcome” at the door of our heart should mean just that, welcome not “enter at your own risk.” Praise the Lord, our God wants to live in our hearts, make His home there. The rest is up to us.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing