Sometimes a devotional day from whatever yearly devotional I am currently reading really speaks to me. Then I think on it for days or weeks. I research aspects of it and seek to better understand.

For example, I’m still thinking about a devotional from February 16 from the devotional Beloved….

“Fear is the great enemy of intimacy. Fear makes us run away from each other or cling to each other, but does not create true intimacy. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples were overcome by fear and they all ‘deserted him and ran away’ (Matthew 26:56)….Fear makes us move away from each other to a “safe” distance, or move towards each other to a “safe” closeness, but fear does not create the space where true intimacy can exist….

To those who are tortured by inner and outer fear, and who desperately look for the house of love where they can find the intimacy their hearts desire, Jesus says: ‘You have a home…I am your home…claim me as your home…you will find it to be the intimate place where I have found my home…it is right where you are…in your innermost being…in your heart.’ The more attentive we are to such words the more we realize that we do not have to go far to find what we are searching for. The tragedy is that we are so possessed by fear that we do not trust our innermost self as an intimate place but anxiously wander around hoping to find it where we are not. We try to find that intimate place in knowledge, competence, notoriety, success, friends, sensations, pleasure, dreams, or artificially induced states of consciousness. Thus we become strangers to ourselves, people who have an address but are never home and hence cannot be addressed by the true voice of love.”

Lifesigns by Henri Nouwen

John 14: 19b-21 tells us, “Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Home is the place where one lives permanently. I found this definition when I googled home, “Home means an enjoyable, happy place where you can live, laugh and learn. It’s somewhere where you are loved, respected, and cared for.” We permanently live with ourselves. We should be at home with ourselves. We should love ourselves, respect ourselves, and care for ourselves, as we rest in the Truth that our worth and value are in Jesus Christ who loves us completely. Knowing our true home is in Him. Jesus is what we need. And He meets all our needs.

Now, may the God of peace and harmony set you apart, making you completely holy. And may your entire being—spirit, soul, and body—be kept completely flawless in the appearing of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.The one who calls you by name is trustworthy and will thoroughly complete his work in you. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 TPT

May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!  1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 MSG

Find your delight and true pleasure in Yahweh,
    and He will give you what you desire the most. Psalm 37:4 TPT

Amen.