Home Improvement

The daily devotion that I receive from CBN each day turned on a light.  The author, Tori Troncone, confessed that she loved home improvement shows because there was something so satisfying about seeing how, in the right hands, an old, delipidated, doomed house could be marvelously (almost miraculously) restored, transformed into something warm, inviting, beautiful and totally livable!

            This not only “struck a chord” but also made me realize why Rosalie and I also love home improvement shows.  It is because each show is a metaphor that describes what God does when we come to Him for forgiveness, for reconciliation, for new and eternal life.  He redeems us, giving us transformation and restoration!  II Cor. 5:17 describes what happens to us. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”  This is restoration!  Something unusable in its present state, something old, delipidated, doomed and ready to be demolished is completely restored, transformed and made alive again.

            And the target home doesn’t have to be a house ready to collapse.  It can be perfectly livable and lived-in but lacking a useful floor plan or layout or features that best fit the needs of the family living in the house.  The task at hand becomes a degree of demolition, sometimes down to the bare studs, along with a new design and reconstruction to shape and form the house into the best it can be.

            And so it is with our lives, but unlike the TV representation that takes place within the dedicated hour, the results in our lives becomes a life-changing "work in progress". 

God certainly starts His renovation and restoration the moment we receive Jesus as Savior and Lord but to achieve the full replacement of the “new”, it takes time, effort and a lot of demolition and reconstruction to see the “finished product” become the eye-popping results on display when “reveal” day arrives.

            As God works in our lives to bring us to “reveal” day, we remain that “work in progress”.  And progress requires the building of relationship and relationship requires prayer, studying His word, listening and learning from true pastors and teachers and authors, reading books inspired by the Holy Spirit of the Living God, joining ourselves to others who are also experiencing the same “work in progress”.  Through faith, trust and obedience, we will surely arrive at that eye-popping "reveal day"!.

            Thank you LORD for home improvement shows that show us what You want to do and will do when we turn our lives over to You!

May 24, 2024