At Home With God

Is there anywhere where you are not at home with God? 

Let God press through in that particular circumstance until you gain Him,

and life becomes the simple life of a child.

(--Oswald Chambers: My Utmost For His Highest)

Jesus took on our flesh that we might take on His divinity.  He took up our human nature that we could be "naked and unashamed" before God.  If there is anything in us that is not comfortable in the Presence of God, that is the "sticking point" in our relationship with Him.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7).

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back again into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry "Abba, Father!" (Romans 8:15).

If we read the writings of all the saints, we find them entirely and confidently "at home" with God.  They speak of Him and to Him with great confidence and no fear, only a holy reverence and awe.  John the Apostle, who was probably about 17 when he met Jesus, always wrote about himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved"----a kind of awe-some reverence and unbelief that he had been the object of such great love.  Because of his youth, John, of all the Apostles, probably had the least "agenda" and the least life-experience.  He was a sponge, soaking up the words of the Master. 

The other Apostles had great love for the Lord, but had also been somewhat formed by their previous experiences.  Jesus had to teach them to "become as little children" in His Presence, learning, learning, learning.  Peter was a "man," zealous to defend his Lord---little realizing how little strength he really had in his own power. 

We, too, because of our life experiences, tend to fashion our own worlds---but those worlds are not always compatible with the simple life of a child, who receives everything from its parents in perfect trust and confidence.  We want to walk in our own strength---until we discover how little strength we actually do have. 

Everything in us must come to feel at home with God.  If there is any area where we believe we can "go it alone," in our own strength, we need to allow God to penetrate that area until He softens and gentles it.  We need to give Him permission to work out those areas within us that hide from Him and resist His influence.  We need to become simple children---learning, learning, learning from Him always.