To know God, we must let Him in EVERY room and EVERY area of our life – the good, the bad, the ugly, and the pretty.
Let's say you’ve either spent months, weeks, days, or even just a few hours planning a party (gathering, get together, kickback, whatever floats your boat) and your guests begin to arrive – right on time. You warmly invite them in and say "make yourself at home." Of course you genuinely want them to feel comfortable but, we all know that this means “here stay in this room that I’ve placed you in.” You make the boundaries even more clear by closing doors to certain rooms. Although you said make yourself at home, and you want them to enjoy your humble abode, you don't mean for them to go all over YOUR home nosing around in all of YOUR stuff.
Why are those doors closed? Perhaps, you have personal things in there, or this party was last minute and you just arrived home 30 minutes prior to throw the junk that was in the living room behind doors 1, 2, and 3. It’s almost like when we were kids and we were told to clean our room and to us that may have meant to hide the mess, under the bed or in the closet. (Disclaimer: This wasn’t me but it was totally my brother! Lol <3)
Believe it or not, for many of us when we invite God into our life we often do the same thing we do to our party guests. We make certain rooms, or areas of our life off limits to Him. We hold on to relationships, friendships, jobs, cities, and (un)known sin either (1) thinking we can handle it ourselves or (2) not knowing that we should seek Him concerning ALL things. To grow with God and to learn who He is, we must let Him in on every area of our life – the good, the bad, the ugly, and the pretty. Letting him in sooner rather than later will ensure that He cleans house and that anything that is unlike Him is removed. Our independence makes us more likely to hold onto things both knowingly and unknowingly, but there is a Kingdom that we have inherited and we must move under the authority of God.
Coming into the realization that we are a part of a kingdom (as co-heirs to His Glory) can help us make this adjustment. Many of us have been privileged enough to be a part of democracies and this is the lens in which we view life through. But that is not how we should see our relationship with God the Father. He knows best, especially considering the fact that He also knows all! We must open our hearts to God and we can only do that by spending time with Him, expanding our capacity to understand His ways and His thoughts. Some people say it doesn’t take all the churching and studying and worshipping, but it does!
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. - Romans 8:17 (NIV)
If they didn’t make us sit through hours of school every day do you think we would be able to sit through hours of work. Our capacity to sit and work for 8 hours has been expanded through life. Do you think if we weren’t forced to eat veggies growing up that we would have the capacity to eat them now? I guarantee you that the more you spend time in church, before God, and in His presence, then the less you will fall asleep during service, the more you will want to know, and the more engaged you will be overtime.
I started expanding my capacity for the things of God by scheduling Him in. It sounds so unnatural but if we’re honest that’s how we work nowadays. After sometime it no longer became a scheduled task but instead something I looked forward to each morning. My other trick was to make Him my FIRST thought. It was very difficult at first but now I find myself waking up worshipping God, before I even open my eyes because my spirit can sense that it is time to enter into His presence. God knows that I’m a morning person so He asked that I give Him the first of my day. It was hard initially because I know I’m a morning person and I always have plans to read or write (for work) first thing in the morning. I also had a nasty habit of rolling over in the morning and jumping on social media, checking emails, and responding to text I fell asleep on. I started to realize my eyes would open at 6:30 but I wouldn’t move out of bed until 7:30/8. Now I try not to even open my phone until after my worship, prayer, and quiet time with God. You have to learn what tricks work for you to keep you focused and fired up about seeking God.
So y’all! That’s all I have for now. Let God in, to EVERY room and EVERY area of your life– do this by spending more intimate time with Him, learning Him, trusting Him, and of course obeying Him.
Shalom <3
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