Revelation 3:20
NKJV
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door,
I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
It astounds me when I consider that these words were written to a church – to Christians. Specifically, they were written to the Laodiceans, the ones God rebuked for being lukewarm. Still, they were written to a church and He refers to Himself as being outside the door! He is saying to these Christians, “I stand at your doors and knock. If any one of you hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to you and dine with you and you with Me.” Why does He say this? Why is He standing outside the door?
Who can underestimate the rewards of letting Christ live in us? How many times has a Christian said, “Oh, I would love to step back in time for just a little while, to sit down to dinner with Jesus and really spend time with Him”? But we don’t have to step back in time; He offers us this option right now, today! Yet…
How many of us, complacently thinking ourselves right with God, go to church every Sunday, sing our songs, perhaps even tithe on our income…but leave Jesus standing outside the door? How many of us have refused to hear the knock, to open our selves up to Him and let Him come in? Admittedly, it can be a frightening thing, to consider allowing the Most Holy One to truly maintain residence within us. For Christ to be present flesh must be absent – must die – and flesh has a serious problem with being put to death. It seems far easier to ignore Jesus until that fateful moment when we wake up and realize what we have done – that He is on the outside, begging to be let in, and we are locked up within walls…all alone.
Yet He is a God of mercy. Even to those who have lost the fire, the ones He says are neither hot nor cold, the ones He threatens to vomit out of His mouth, He offers hope. Though He has been pushed to the wrong side of the door of their hearts and had that door closed in His face, He waits. In His loving mercy He knocks, trying to attract their attention. He even calls out to them, for He says, “If anyone hears My voice…” He is a gentleman. He will never force His way into a place where He is unwanted, not even into a church or a so-called Christian’s heart, but He will stand, wait, knock and call for an astoundingly long time…far longer than any of us would stand outside someone’s door.
And to the one who has shown Him the wrong side of the door, He makes a promise. If that one hears His voice and opens the door, He will come in to them and dine with them, and they will dine with Him. Rather than holding in contempt the one who has pushed Him outside, He will forgive them for all the wrong they’ve done Him and honor them with His presence as if they’d never wronged Him at all. What a love this is!
Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C