Just about every house I have lived in has been divided into specific rooms. Before a house is built architects draw a floor plan showing the placement of each specific room.
We sleep in a bedroom. We take a bath in the bathroom. The family gathers in the living room for entertainment and fellowship. In the dining room, we eat the food we cooked in the kitchen. And we do our laundry in the laundry room.
Occasionally noise from one room will filter into another room. Or the aromas from the kitchen will waft through the other rooms in the house. But for the most part, each room has its own function. When we leave a room, we usually leave behind the intended function of that room. For instance, we do not cook in the bathroom or wash clothes in the bedroom.
[Tweet “The greatest tragedy is that we often relegate our faith to its own room.”]
Our Floor Plan for Life
Sadly, we seem to develop a floor plan for our lives as well. We segment our lives into various responsibilities, pursuits, and activities. The greatest tragedy is that we often relegate our faith to its own room.
We fail to let our relationship with Jesus affect what we do in our “work room” or “play” room. We enjoy spending a few hours or a day in our “Jesus room,” but we close the door behind us and leave Him in there.
I see a tragic disconnect in the lives of many Christians today. They come to church on Sunday, smile, sing praises to God, and enjoy the worship. Then they live the rest of the week by their own standards.
A quick glance at their social media pages reveals language, values, and action they would never engage while sitting in their “Jesus room” on Sunday. They claim to believe the Bible but do not follow Biblical instruction.
My observation is that as many Christians co-habitate outside of marriage as do those not claiming to follow Jesus. Christians drink and party with the same worldly “gusto” as non-believers. Many Christians seem to design a floor plan for their life that includes all the rooms their friends enjoy.
They rationalize their behavior by pointing to the “Jesus room” in their lives. They feel good about their life because they at least have a room for Him.
[Tweet “Jesus does not want to be an item on your priority list – not even the #1 item.”]
Consider a New Floor Plan
The problem with that kind of thinking is that Jesus does not desire a room in your home. He wants to be Lord of your home. Rather than part of the structure, He wants to be the architect and builder.
Jesus does not want to be an item on your priority list – not even the #1 item. He want to permeate every item on your list. Notice carefully the highlighted preposition in the verse below.
He is also the head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that He might come to have
first place in everything. – Colossians 1:18
[Tweet “Jesus does not desire a room in your home. He wants to be Lord of your home.”]
Jesus wants to influence everything in our lives. He doesn’t want a place on the list, but He wants to construct, organize, and empower all that is on the list. He doesn’t want to be a room in the floor plan of our life, He wants to fill every room with meaning, purpose, and direction.
A Makeover for Your Life’s Floor Plan
Let me challenge you to consider remodeling your life. Have you fallen into the disconnect pattern of life? Even though you go to church, say your prayers, and read your Bible, are there areas of life in which you are not living obediently?
Go ahead and clean out the “Jesus room.” Instead of putting Him in a segment of your life, will you consider how Jesus can enrich and empower every part of your life?
Open the windows and turn on the lights in the rooms of your life that are disobedient to God. Allow Jesus through the Word of God to put those rooms in order. I think you will be amazed at how much joy you will get from a life permeated with your relationship with Jesus.
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them,
I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house,
who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.
And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house
and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man
who built a house on the ground without a foundation.
When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell,
and the ruin of that house was great.” – Luke 6:46-49
This weekend, I had the privilege of participating in the funeral service for a retired Fire Department Captain. While I never knew him as a fire captain, I knew him as a member of our church. The Fire Department impressed me with the way they showed him honor at the funeral service.
A church sign in our area reads, “Church: The Place to Be Seen in 2018.”