Make Yourself at Home

"I've loved you the way My Father has loved Me. Make yourselves at home in My love. If you keep My commands, you'll remain intimately at home in My love. That's what I've done - kept My Father's commands and made Myself at home in His love." John 15:9-10 (Message)

Make yourself at home in My love.

Jesus' sweet invitation. How beautiful is that?!
He asked me what I thought He meant by "home". This is what I came up with:

Get comfortable with His love, know it inside and out like my own home. Own it and make it yours - this love is mine. I am my Beloved's and He is mine. He has been inviting me to make myself at home in Him. To throw my bean bag chair in the middle of His living room, rummage through His cupboards, sing in His kitchen, walk in His gardens.

It's so beautiful and I'm just beginning to learn what this invitations means. I don't think I've even scratched the surface.

All I know is, I'm so in love with Jesus, and this invitation has changed my life. The God of the universe has invited us to never leave His Presence, to make ourselves at home in His love.

And it's not to get anything from Him. Yes, intimacy leads to impact. All ministry flows from intimacy. But may we never pursue intimacy to only get things from God. He is so much bigger than that. May we long to know Jesus simply because He's Jesus, the One who's worth it all.

When you're at home you can be completely yourself, completely at rest. Striving and performance ceases because you're with family. They know your crap. They know your joys. And they want to hangout with you anyways. Jesus says, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Or. In my paraphrase:
"Stop trying so hard and working from your own strength. Plop yourself down on My couch and let Me teach you. It's really not as hard as you think. It's so simple. You just walk hand-in-hand with Me and watch Me. We'll change the world, but let's hangout while we do it. The more time we spend together, the more you'll become like Me and you'll realize how simple it all really is. I love you. Make yourself at home in that - I love you."

And then He said something terrible cheesy and silly, but oh so profound to this kid from Oregon: "You're a mobile home of love." Yup. All the hippy cheese.

A camper cart bike. How epic is that. 

But seriously. I literally am the temple, the dwelling place, the carrier, the host, the home to the Presence of Love Himself. I was created to be the living, moving, breathing conduit of the manifest Presence of God to bring His ridiculously beautiful love to a lost and dying world.

It all starts with being at home in His love. How can I tell someone about something that I haven't really experienced or don't really truly know? And if I don't have His love in me and I'm not literally just breathing for love for Him, everything I do is nothing. I'm nothing. "I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him." (Philippians 3)

So yeah. He's inviting you to make yourself at home in His love. To know Him, to delight in Him, to simply be with Him all the time, any place, anywhere. And everything else will come naturally from that place.