My Heart Christ’s Dwelling Place
July 22, 2026
Psalm 90:1 “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
Rachel Kimmel
I remember like it was yesterday, sitting on my bunk as a young child and listening to a small book being read for camp devotions: My Heart Christs Home, by Robert Boyd Munger. I heard how Jesus came to reside in the home of the author’s heart to cleanse, heal and be Lord. Deep in my little girl’s heart, I knew that is what I wanted, Jesus to be real and to dwell with me in intimacy. Such a big word, I didn’t know it then, but do now. He wanted a cleansed heart. I was already a Christian- but loved how the author put it - Jesus “came into the darkness of my heart and turned on the light. He built a fire in the cold heart and banished the chill. He started music where there had been stillness and harmony where there had been discord”. Page 6 (kindle version). As the story went on, Jesus walked into each room of the heart, and suddenly, with the Lords presence, the light was shining and all the hidden objects were revealed, and old issues not dealt with had to be put in order so that, Jesus, ‘the author and projector of our faith’ could come and dwell. (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus entered the study, then the living room and dining room. He asked, does this place serve food to satisfy spiritual hunger? Can I sit on the couch in purity? But then one day ( still in the story) .. Jesus caught the man’s eye and pointed to the smell coming from the dead things tucked away for years in the closet of his heart. Things that did not produce life, and laid as rotten fruit in a closet for years behind a closed door -filling the house with a very bad aroma. But with His gentle loving heart - Jesus called and said - ‘I can’t dwell here with that smell’…. And with that Word, the man said, ‘would you open it for me, I haven’t the strength to do it on my own.’ And as Jesus opened the box, immediately there was life and a pleasant aroma filled the room.
That day on my bunk as I listened to that story, I “got it”. I knew I wanted God to cleanse my heart to be as pure as possible so that it could be His home and I could host his presence. And … as I have grown with the Lord, I have come to know that inner healing from decisions that past wounds have created - transforms, sanctifies and makes that pure and holy dwelling place for the Lord that I long for.
Those of you who know Jesus, can speak to this imagery of him coming into our hearts making it so amazingly beautiful, peaceful, rewarding when we first come to know him (and beyond) and set about cleansing the obvious things in our heart and home and we make Jesus central as we walk with him. But then, as we walk with him and grow, the struggles of our lives start revealing what is in our heart and we realize that there is way more than meets the eye. We discover bad spiritual fruit in our lives in certain areas that did not have its root in Jesus, but of our own sinful making and did not yet make it to the cross. We know it, we sense it…but we ask “How God?”, “How did this get there?” … We desperately want him to come dwell in that place, and we wonder why we are not showing consistent fruit of righteousness in that area or why we are stuck in pain. We can struggle to put on the robe of righteousness that God desires in these areas. We may fall back into certain ways - again and again, or we just feel the pain in our hearts that stays- especially when it is triggered and we have an over the top reaction. We may feel we are on the outside looking in, or something just isn’t quite right and ….we may not even see it but others around us do. I can’t stress enough that these are places in our hearts’ home that need healing. These are the places of bitter roots from long ago that have gone deep and have sprung up causing trouble. ( Hebrews 12:15) These are seeds we have sown long ago and only now are reaping. (Galatians 6:7) But so many times, the reason we don’t know they are related is the length of time between the sowing and reaping. These are areas that have grown rotten fruit from unforgiveness, dishonor, believing lies and vowing to live life in a way that tried to keep us from being hurt again. Cemented with bitterness, they sprang up in our lives at an older age. But friend, these are places in our hearts we must heal. Like the character in My Heart Christs Home, whose closet held a box for many years producing a stench. Jesus wants those sin issues hidden away in our hearts for years -untouched by the gospel of his grace- so that we will be crucified to them with christ and resurrected in those areas. (Gal 2:20 ) We must open the box. We can’t just try harder, the box will still stay locked the whole time producing bad fruit- all the time we are just trying harder to overcome. If the unforgiveness and sinful decisions from it are not placed on the cross, we will not have a nice smell in our lives. Many people live a life so short of what God promised, so unfulfilled, not knowing how to have the victory and abundant life God promised becuase that box feels too hard to open. He wants to heal you, he wants to make you whole and reside in every room of your heart. To be a life for His glory. He is offering you abundant life, not just eternal life, and by placing those things on the cross at the root of where they started- it will begin to be transformed. We heal through forgiveness , repentance and renunciation. This brings us to know the height, depth and width of the love of God. Come join me on the journey to healing. I will help guide you through the home of your heart.
Prayer this prayer to begin inviting the Lord into places of your heart, long shut out to reveal the sinful decisions and wounds of the past so that He will come in and heal and cleanse and make Holy and your heart His dwelling place in these areas.
“Dear Lord,
I invite you to show me the places of my heart that need healing, that I have long shut out to you and just stuffed like a treasure chest with a lock and begin to gently open the chest. I ask you to come and hover over my heart with your gentle love and kindness and begin to show me my spiritual fruit that has grown on the tree of my life that has a bad smell to you and people around me, and places that I don’t even know have had bitter roots form long ago. Reveal to me closed up caverns of my heart that I have been hiding or even unaware - that have produced a harvest of unrighteousness. Show me everything that I have not dealt with, and places I need healing and ways that I don’t love and give me the strength to look at the bitter roots. I invite you to open the doors of my heart that have been so hard to open and that I need you to unlock, because like the author of “My Heart, Christ’s home” - I say ‘would you open it for me, I haven’t the strength to do it on my own.’ Because I know, when I open it, and allow you to heal it and forgive and repent- , immediately there will be life and a pleasant aroma will fill the room.
Psalm 90:1 “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
Leviticus 26:11-12. “I will make my dwelling among you”
John 14:7 “You know him (the Holy Spirit), for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
Psalm 27:4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”