“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelation 3:20 (NIV)
I love how polite Jesus is. He doesn’t barge through the door, demanding that we trust him and put our faith in him. He doesn’t bully His way into our lives.
He simply stands at the door of our hearts and knocks, waiting for us to make the first move.
The most important choice we will ever make in our lives is the choice to believe and accept the salvation offered to us through Jesus Christ. God has even made that super simple. All we have to do is:
A – Admit that we are sinners
B – Believe that Jesus died for our sins
C – Commit our lives to following Him
That process may look and feel different for each of us depending on our background and experiences, but the real question is, do we believe in this person, Jesus, and who He says He is? Have we said yes to Him?
The answer to that question defines how we will spend eternity.
This well-known verse is also speaking to more than a once-in-a-lifetime commitment that gives us a ticket to heaven. In fact, it was written to people who already believed in Jesus. When you read the context of this verse you will discover that it was written to the church of Laodicea. They already believed in Jesus, they were part of the original church, so what are these words written by John saying since the people reading it were already Christians?
These words seem to be speaking to much more than what is beyond death and are telling us how to live every moment of our life here on earth as well. They are speaking about a relationship. They are speaking about the fullness of salvation, living totally surrendered to Christ.
This begs me to ask myself some hard questions: Am I living my life with my heart open? Am I listening for the voice of Jesus in every part of my life? What in my life is keeping me from hearing His voice? Am I living in the fullness of salvation by inviting Jesus into every part of my journey?
Picture it this way: We hear Jesus at the door knocking. We answer the door and let Jesus in, but then we totally ignore him. We don’t engage in conversation with him, we don’t show him around our house, we don’t offer him a meal or even a simple cup of coffee. We go on with our life and leave him standing there all alone at the door.
Pretty rude.
When Jesus knocks, He wants to be fully engaged and involved in every single part of our lives. He longs to be included in all the little details as well as the big ones. He’s ready to hear about our struggles, celebrate our joys, and shower us with His never-ending love.
The fullness of salvation to me means living so close to the heart of God that I hear His voice, especially in the hard things I am walking through.
The fullness of salvation to me means today, right here and now, I invite Jesus into every aspect of life, the good, the bad, and the ugly, trusting that the more I invite Him in, the more peace, love, hope and joy I will experience.
The fullness of salvation is believing and receiving completely the life-giving truth that I am a new creation because of what Jesus did for me on the cross; the old is gone, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17).
The fullness of salvation is that place where we experience love and grace that reaches beyond our ability to comprehend but we somehow know it to be true.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Ephesians 3:19 (NLT)
As we celebrate Easter next week, I hope you open the door to Jesus and then invite Him to come all the way in!
Hugs and love,
Jill