Down payment. That’s what makes buying a house so difficult these days. I hear a lot of people say they could make monthly payments, but they just can’t afford a down payment. Maybe that’s you. Owning a home of your own is out of reach because of that precarious down payment. Never-the-less, the purpose of the down payment is to ensure that the bank can recover the balance due on the loan. It makes sense. Lenders don’t want to shell out money for a house that people could just walk away from. If you save up your 20% to put down on your home, you take it pretty seriously.
When Daniel and I first bought our house we had big plans. After we saved and financed, we planned. Then we scrubbed. We painted. We ripped up carpet. We agreed that when company came, they would check their shoes at the door. We protected our investment. We made it our home. We made it our dwelling place.
Interestingly, a down payment was paid for you. “It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us” (2 Cor. 1:21-22). God paid a down payment to make sure He gets you, all of you.
“Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you” (2 Tim. 1:14). Since He forked over the down payment He’s ready to take up His residency. If Daniel and I purchased our home, pulled the moving truck up, and then realized the bank didn’t give us the keys, we would have freaked out. What if the bank then told us that we didn’t get the keys with the purchase of the home. We can have the house, but we can’t get in.
That’s what a lot of purchased Christians (Acts 20:28) who resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51) do. We accept the offer of salvation, but we don’t give God access to our lives. If you have accepted Jesus’ offer to buy you back and redeem you, check yourself today to see if you have really let the Holy Spirit move in. Ask yourself if you are bearing the fruit of the Spirit found in Gal. 5:22-23. If you find yourself struggling with the same old, same old over and over again, it could be a good indication that you haven’t let the Spirit of God take His rightful place in His temple, YOU!
Lord, I offer this prayer today for all the people who read these words, for each soul who meditates on them. Give us spiritual vision. Let us see our own potential to become free from our struggles, addictions, sorrow, and earthly burdens through the power of your Holy Spirit. Help us believe that we have been given a guarantee. Show us You live in us. And if we resist, pull us through so that we can really see what it’s all about. In Jesus, Amen.
