Who is Knocking?

I wonder if you have ever found yourself on the wrong side of a door. Maybe you have been shut out in torrential rain without an umbrella and without the key to get back into the warm dry sanctuary of your home. I’m sure, if this has happened to you, you knocked extra hard, or insistently rang the bell, and perhaps even shouted out, “Let me in”.

Of course, in this scenario, we are knocking to get in for our own benefit, but what if the person trying to get in is wanting to help because of a dire need inside. It could be a paramedic perhaps, who is responding to an emergency call but unable to gain entry to bring essential help until the door is opened. What if no one opens the door? The result of that closed door could be life-threatening for someone.

You might be certain that you wouldn’t shut the door of your house to needed help, but what about the spiritual entrance to your heart? In John’s Revelation we find a sober warning. The message comes from ‘the Amen, the Faithful and True witness, the Beginning of the Creation of God’, and is given to those in the church at Laodicea: “You have a problem with closed doors.” Jesus tells them that He is standing at the door and knocking, and calling out to them, because there is a need for heart-healing help. But the door is shut, and it seems that they might not realise that He can’t get in,

So why do we shut the door, or in other words build up a defence to guard our heart, a defence that keeps out the very One who longs to come in with the life-saving help that we need? Maybe we don’t recognise our need. We haven’t sent out the emergency call, because we think we’re doing OK. We’ve got it all together. But the One who knows us intimately sees needs we might not yet recognise, and He may come knocking at the door of our self-righteousness or self-sufficiency. Or maybe it’s the fear of feeling exposed or vulnerable without our own door of defence. Past experiences with those whom we thought might help us, but who ended up harming us, have made us extra wary. Or maybe we don’t believe that anyone can help us, even God. Perhaps we don’t feel worthy of His help. We feel we are so bad that we are a lost cause.

However you feel today, remember Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart and longs to come in to establish a deeper friendship and share His sustaining, life-giving food. Perhaps you can’t imagine flinging that door to your innermost being wide, just yet, but maybe you could risk starting with just a crack. It may not be easy, but the good news is that even the smallest crack is enough for the light and love of Jesus to start to flood into the darkness, bringing comfort into any wounded places.

Is He standing at your door and knocking today? Is He calling out to you, “Let Me in”? We have a choice to make.