God’s House
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Our lives can be shaped by God if we allow Him to. If we give Him full reign, He will make us better than we could have ever imagined.
Renos
Have you ever watched Leave it to Bryon? People willingly pay him to come into their houses and choose what he thinks needs to be fixed first. He then comes in with a plan to completely redo the room that he chooses, as he chooses.
First though he asks if the owner(s) are ready to trust him and hand over their money for him to make the decisions.
C.S. Lewis says God is the same way except that God will redo the entire “house”. However, we often think He’s gonna just make us liveable.
All we need are the necessities to live right? Who though, is actually satisfied with the bare necessities? Especially here in North America where we so easily can have much more.
I have way more than running water with no leaky faucets or drains and a roof over my head. Could I live with less? Sure, but why would I if I’ve been blessed with so much more?
Some may argue we should live with less because then we will rely on God more. In this case less is more which is not wrong. God, however, wants to bless us and give us more than what we need to survive. After all, life is more than just survival.
Surviving is only part of living. Living life to the fullest for God means you allow Him to fix you and ultimately change you into the person He has called you to be.
Work in Progress
So here God comes, changing things around, making things more efficient, clearing up space and making you beautiful from the inside out. It may hurt at times but believe me, it’s for the better.
You may think that you are “pretty good” all things considered. You may think you know how to live your life and your doing a good job at it too. It is your life after all. Who could live it better? God can. If only you would let Him.
God knows you better than you ever could. He knows where you have faults; where you struggle with pride, or anger and who/what triggers your weaknesses and sins. He also knows how to fix these problems.
Some ways He sometimes fixes the problem is by making you deal with the problem over and over and then giving you understanding for how to overcome it.
This doesn’t necessarily get rid of your problem but it changes it from a problem to a growing experience and increased wisdom.
God’s Palace
This leads to God making you better than you were before. For after your creaks and groans and leaks are fixed God adds wisdom and patience and peace and understanding and knowledge and so many other virtues to your “house”.
Now you are on your way to becoming that beautiful palace that God is making His home.
