He Is Our Home

Jesus is the Savior who had nowhere to call home: “And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’” (Luke 9:58). And yet, this is the Savior who is our home.

When I think of home, I think of the candles burning, the fireplace roaring, and the doors closed to the outside elements. I think of a warm place, and a place where I can recline. I think of a place to welcome guests—provide food or lodging. I think of a place to share with family, and others who come to visit. I think of a home being the place where much of life happens—much of the routine of living. It is a place where I go to find the space to be myself—to stretch myself out and be, as much as possible.

I think of Jesus being our home, then. The Savior of the world being our resting place. He is the Savior who leads us home—away from the ways of the world and that loneliness to the ways of the Lord and his saving realities. He is constantly in the process of saving us from the world and welcoming us into his eternal presence. We grow to know him better and better through his Word in us to make us whole. We learn to stretch out with him—to be fuller and fuller versions of ourselves. And, he just simply is our place of comfort.

When I come home, I come to a place of rest. And Jesus—he is our rest. He is our home, in that we can be ourselves with him—indeed we learn who we are. Those weaknesses we thought were ours to bear until eternity, he relieves and lifts. He removes from us our besetting sins and he crowns us with joy and peace in his presence. Jesus is the light of our lives and the light of our days. He is where fire and candle dance in his presence and in his love. He is the place where we go for encouragement and comfort—for help and hope.

Where else do we have to go but to the everlasting arms of Jesus? There is no other place in this weary world for comfort and hope and help. There is nowhere else to go. There is nowhere else to be. There is nowhere else to be. Jesus wants us to find our home and help and blessedness with him. He wants us to go to him and be ourselves. He wants to be the foundation upon which we recline. Jesus is our hope and our help—our blessing and our security. He is all that a home should be, where we find our soul’s lodging and sustenance and rest.

When we trust in Jesus, we find the one who is our very best friend. The comfort and hope of our souls rest with him. And, is he not a marvel—that all of humanity, with all of the diversity of people, could find their true and perfect home with them? When a soul feels understood, it is said to find its “person”—its home. Jesus is that home for us. He is that rest and peace for us. He is that truth of person for us. Jesus is our unfolding hope—that is, he is where we can continue to develop and grow within a security of love.

Home is where love dwells. Home is where love expresses itself day by day. And, Jesus—he is with us through every day of our lives, providing home for our souls. Never does a day go by where he doesn’t welcome us to himself. Never is there a day that goes by in which he does not invite us to find respite and comfort with him. Our soul’s repose—for we are perfectly known and intimately loved—is in our Lord. As the old writers would say—avail yourself of Jesus. Take advantage of all of his blessings and comforts. Know that he is your soul’s home, and find your comfort there.

Jesus is where we go to find rest and help and peace. He is the light of our hearts, where we go when the weary world is crushing our spirits. He lifts and revives. He wraps his arms around us and breathes his life into our hearts. Jesus is the place where we rest our heads. He came to have nowhere to rest his head, such that we could recline on his breast all of the days of our lives. Let us go into him, close the door, and find the rest of our souls—known and wanted there in his holy presence.

He Is Our Stability

When I set my head down on my pillow each night, I have peace and rest that I know Jesus Christ. I have made the ask: I have trusted in him for my salvation. I don’t fully know why, but it was frightening to trust in him and only him for the salvation of my soul. Trusting in myself is what I knew. It is what I felt comfortable doing. But then, I put myself in his arms alone, and I rested there. I was safe and secure. He is our stability of salvation.

Each night as I rest, and before my mind falls into its sleep, I think about Jesus and the firm foundation that I have with him. I think about how I can lean on him—that he is my rest and my peace. Each night, I renew my decision to trust in Jesus for my salvation by resting in him. If something were to happen to me in my sleep, I would still be resting on him when I awoke in the realms of glory.

Yet, still, while reflecting here and resting here on this earth, he is the stability of my day. I know what to expect, walking with my dear Jesus. I know that he will surprise me with his plans for my life. I know that he will surprise me with how he leads and blesses me. I know that he will take me into interesting and new directions. I know that he will reveal my life to me as it moves forward. While he is surprising and inventive concerning my life direction and his leadership of me, he is also stable.

I know that he is holy and pure and true. I know that he is leading me for his Name’s sake. I know that his love will never end—it will go on forever and ever. It is an everlasting love. I know that my walk is solid when I walk in his ways. I know that my days are full of his mercy and dependent upon his abounding grace. I know that he will be there in prayer, listening and guiding my spirit forward. I know that he lifts me and prepares me for what he wants me to do.

I believe that Jesus likes to be our place of security and solidity. I believe with all my heart that he loves when his saints depend upon him alone. There is peace in knowing that Jesus is our security and safety. I think about all of the evil forces of this world—the realm of demons and devil. He will protect us from attack and from all temptation, providing a way out. Jesus is the King, and his kingdom is present here wherever he is acknowledged as the King—wherever he is obeyed as such. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. And, as a participant in his realm, I know that all of the forces of evil without and all of the evil tendencies within will meet their demise.

Knowing that Jesus rules the world is the stability of our lives and existences. He is our stabling force. When we are overwhelmed by the workings of the world and by the spiritual forces that are against us, he commands us well through his power and glory shining in and through us through the Holy Spirit. There is nothing about our lives that surprises God. There is nothing about our futures that catches him off-guard. If we are in a time of testing, we can trust that Jesus is the Rock upon which we can lean.

At times, there will be testing in our lives. There will be trials and patches of rough earth upon which we need to travel. But our prayers work because God has deemed our prayer to be effective with him. Our cries to him work. He answers them. We know that he loves to answer the prayers of his saints. And, he will rush to our side, being our guide and our fearless presence. He will send his help of stabilizing strength. Jesus is worth our trust. He will guide us through—sometimes with a different path or different results than on our minds. But he will guide us through nonetheless. Our paths will be straight through whatever we face.

The Lord stabilizes us through our salvation, through his charming leadership, through his steadfast character, through grappling with all of the forces of evil against us, and through experiencing difficulties in our lives. There is security in knowing the King of kings. And, though perhaps we would prefer that he rush us to his presence the moment we accept salvation, we can trust that he is working out his plan and ways for his purposes and glory. And we—we have the opportunity to show him our love for him now through our reliance upon him, and our trust that he is our good all of the days of our lives.

We Are Never Helpless in Helping

never-helpness-in-helping.jpg

Regularly, I encounter suffering in other believers’ lives that I cannot remedy or change. Further, I am unable to comprehend the full impact and the unique features of others’ pressures and sorrows. Yet, I often desire to be that impossibly close. Knowing what I cannot do could lead to discouragement. But the apostle Paul writes of a better way.

“Join Me”

Paul tells—no, urges—the church in Rome to join him in his struggle (Romans 15:30). He doesn’t instruct his fellow Christians to solely accept and acknowledge their real limitations in helping him. He also doesn’t say that because they are not the agents of solution or omniscient listeners, they aren’t much help after all. He tells them to enter into his concerns.

After teaching upon teaching of gospel theology in his letter to the Romans, Paul then writes to the church in Rome about his needs. He desires to be free in Judea to continue his mission and well-received in ministry in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 24:17), all so that he may be refreshed through a trip to the church at Rome(Romans 15:31-32). And Paul gives the church at Rome these prayer requests fundamentally on the basis of their being fellow believers who share with him in the love of God through Christ, as his letter describes. While he is hoping to visit them, he has been prevented from doing so (Romans 1:13). But he entreatsthat they share his concerns; he wants their help.

As one immediate and personal application of the theology he had been teaching—a theology that joins believers together in the Lord—he asks them to pray.

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.”
Romans 15:30 NIV

Commonality Affects Prayer

If any of the recipients of his letter have merely casual concerns for him thus far, he urges them forward. If they have little to no concerns, he asks them to consider their same Lord and the same love of the Holy Spirit among them—the God who makes their priorities and sense of mission shared. And if they already do have significant concern, then he directs that drive of compassion toward one end—the means by which he believes that he will substantially receive their aid. 

When a believer is suffering and we want to help more than we possibly can help, we can pray.

Perhaps you have done all that you are able to do in the life of a suffering friend—been present to listen, continued toremembered him or her over time, sought to offer specific service of some kind, or insightful and compassionate words of biblical help that God has enabled you to provide—and you still feel as though you wish you could do more. Don’t belittle the help you have already given. And then, don’t doubt the purpose of the compassion that is remaining in your heart; don’t allow it to make you feel helpless. It’s there for a purpose. 

As we pray for God’s glory in the lives of our believing friends and family members, we remember what He can do:

  1. God can see into our inner beings to know our exact needs,preparing corresponding provisions of Himself to help the believer stay near to Him in sorrow. The Holy Spirit is able to guide the suffering Christian into the truth of the Word, the truth that affords lasting comfort and provides foundation for perseverance.

  2. God could change circumstances altogether, glorifying Himself through a demonstration of His power. And He can also arrange the sufferer’s days to allow for upliftingcircumstantial help amidst pain.

  3. God can provide opportunities through suffering by the Spirit to display Christ-like character and proclaim the gospel that alone gives hope, as God’s glory radiates through the believer’s life. God can enable the Christian to maintain, and often increase, his or her witness to Christ while in the saddest of days.

  4. God can move the Christian’s inner spirit to pray with a hopeful, expectant, and believing heart that He would come back for His own soon. And the Christian’s spirit can also gain greater compassion for those who yet do not have the hope of the gospel, thanking God for His patience with this world.

God can press His good purposes into human sorrow with such power that the believer can have immense joy through the privilege of glorifying His Name and depending upon Him at all times. Paul is, of course, right. We have commonality through our shared love of God that enables us to instantaneously understand the manner in which we can pray for one another.

Additionally, Paul does not only ask for prayer as a fellow believer, but also as one who is engaged in a life devoted to the ministry of the Word and to the spread of the gospel to those who had not yet heard it. As we think of those who are suffering, we can pray too for believers experiencing various pressures as a result of their devotion to ministry and missions—joining as supporters of their labors. 

Never Helpless in Helping

Because we have prayer, we are never helpless in helping. We can call upon the Lord who knows us and all of our circumstances with knowledge that is comprehensive, familiar, and precise. Pressing into our desires to help others in impossible-to-us ways is useful, hope-filled. For, in those desires, we remember to pray into others’ lives the comforts of our shared, infinite God. 


This post was originally published at The Ploughman’s Rest.