Million-Dollar Home
Baby Girl,
The Christian walk is a bit of an oxymoron.
Oxymoron = a combination of contradictory or incongruous words; something that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements
Contradictory = mutually opposed or inconsistent
Incongruous = not in harmony or keeping with the surroundings or other aspects of something
As Christ followers, you are called individually but your calling is collective. I bid you to come to Me individually but urge you to bring friends along. You stand accountable for others and yet you stand alone.
When you consider the cost of those Blood-stained nails, consider them an investment in your future. Don’t simply think of the Blood as a price that was paid but an investment that has been made.
If you purchased a million-dollar home, would you install apartment-grade accessories? When you have a valuable possession, it is important to invest in the care and upkeep. It costs something to maintain.
Think of your relationship with Me as a multi-million-dollar dwelling place. Through Jesus, We made the initial investment. Your home is paid in full. It belongs to you.
Your relationship with Me has been secured. The next part is your responsibility: the care and upkeep of the home We will live in.
This dwelling comes with a comprehensive owner’s manual, My Word, the Bible. Most people who get something new toss the owner’s manual in a drawer and think nothing else of it. Usually, they bought the item with a specific use in mind and don’t investigate what else that item can do. This is true of most of My children.
Think of your air fryer. You use it all the time. You’re grateful for it. You tell people air fryers are amazing and how crispy it makes leftover fries, how tender it cooks meat, and how leftover pizza tastes like it just came out of the pizza oven.
You wouldn’t want to live without your air fryer but what do you really know about it? How many buttons are on the front of it? Now think of how many buttons you have used since you’ve had it. You turn it on, push air fry, and everything cooks at the preset temperature of 400 degrees.
Have you ever stopped to consider why they might have created so many buttons if the only thing you could do was cook your food at 400 degrees? Now you’re curious. You want to go home and read the manual. What else can you do with an air fryer?
What about your instant pot? There are even more buttons on that appliance. Have you ever noticed the yogurt button? If you had known your instant pot had a yogurt button, do you think you would have purchased that yogurt maker that sits unused in your pantry? You also bought a separate rice cooker because you were uninformed about the rice button.
What else is your instant pot capable of? Did you know it works as a slow cooker, a pressure cooker, and even a vegetable steamer? What else can that handy little pot do? It’s frustrating when, on occasion, soup beans burn to the bottom of the pot. Do you think the manual might have advice about that?
Too many of My children move into the place We purchased, carelessly and ignorantly wrecking it. They drag furniture in scuffing up the walls and scratching the hardwood floors. Over the years, when stuff breaks, they just stop using it rather than learning how to fix it.
The exterior of the home gets covered in mildew, the gardens fill with weeds, and critters get into the attic; but they do nothing to amend the situation.
When someone stops by, they pretend they’re not home. They know the condition of the house is due to neglect but it is so far gone, they don’t even know where to start in cleaning it up. This is the state of far too many of My children.
You have now read the manual from cover to cover and continue to learn more as you read and re-read what has become the most valuable book you own. It can be hard to live in a well-maintained home and not want to do something to help your neighbors with the deterioration of theirs. You could go from door to door offering to spruce things up but that is not what I’m calling you to do. That well-intentioned offer would be taken as a criticism and would be met with contempt.
Rather than worrying about the state of the neighborhood, maintain your home well, love your neighbors well, and do not give advice that is not directly requested and prayerfully addressed. Your well-kept home will make others curious. When they decide it’s time to change, they will come to you for input. Be available with answers - not for how to fix a clogged sink but for where the answer can be found in The Manual.
When they mention how well-maintained your gardens look, don’t offer to help them weed their gardens. Ask them if they would like to learn how to differentiate the plants from the weeds. Don’t grab your cleaning supplies and run over to clean when they complain about their mess - let them know where they can get cleaning supplies of their own.
You are yoked with Me. My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Your role in the lives of others is to point to resources, point to The Manual, and point to Me. It wasn’t until someone did that consistently for you that your home got put back in order and it hasn’t happened overnight.
Come alone and bring a friend.
LOVE,
Daddy
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
