Thankful for the Home

 In the Wizard of Oz, we hear Dorothy say the phrase, “There is no place like home.”  That is very much true and even when sometimes home life may not be perfect, it is still a place of refuge that many of us go to and our true homes are all different for each of us.  Of course, as a follower of Christ, we know our true home is in heaven.  However, let me ask, how often have you come to the Lord in thanksgiving for your home?   In today’s devotional, that’s the very thing I want us to focus on.  Thanksgiving for our home.

Another fond saying that we normally hear concerning the home is, “Home is where the heart is.”  If we devote ourselves to the Lord this is very much the truth because we understand that we do not build the home, but the Lord does.  If we attempt to build a home life based on our own powers, it will surely fail.  That is why we see so many broken homes today.  Many of us feel that we can rely on our own wisdom and we think we know what is best and rarely go to the Lord for guidance.  There is also a problem in our society where we feel like we have to “keep up with the Jones’”  That is not the proper attitude for a follower of Christ and Scripture warns us of feeling this way.  In fact, the tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet”  warns directly against such a thing.  When we think of our homes, we should be thankful unto God that He has even given us a home and a roof over our head.  We should be thankful for the members of our home and what they mean to us and not compare them to anything else.  We need to remember that our homes need to be focused on the Lord.

Psalm 127:1 says,  

“Unless the Lord builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it;

Unless the Lord guards the city,

The watchman stays awake in vain.”

If we want a loving, secure, successful home, we must make sure the Lord builds the house.  The answer that we need for our homes today is the Lord.  We need to return to His Word and we need to be truly thankful for what He has given us.  Not matter the size of our home, no matter the looks of our home, we should be thankful to God for it.  If we are thankful to Him, God promises to continue to bless us.  God cherishes a thankful heart.

Proverbs 3:33 says,

The LORD’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.

If we want to experience the blessings of the Lord in our home, we have to surrender our homes to the Lord and devote ourselves unto Him.  It’s a decision we have to make.  We cannot have another make it for us or just think that it will automatically happen.  Daily, we have to go to the Lord and surrender our will to Him.  We make the choice if we are going to try to manage our homes in our own power or if we are going to rely on God.

Joshua 24:15 says,

15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

We should wake every morning and say the same thing that Joshua said.  “As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.”

So, during this month of Thanksgiving, let us be thankful to God for giving us our home.  It’s a lot bigger than that though.  Beside our earthly home that we should be ever grateful, we should be thankful to God that He is preparing a heavenly home for us.  

Jesus promised us in John 14:1-2

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

We can be thankful to God that not only has He given us a home on this earth, but He has also given us a home in heaven!

Give thanks to the Lord this day!