Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
Revelation 3:20
When I read this passage, I imagine Jesus at the door of my life, saying, “I’m here. Will you let me in?”
What happens after we answer the knock? We open the door, we invite Jesus in. But too often we want Him to stay in the foyer. It’s not necessarily that we want Him to leave in a hurry, but we don’t really want Him to come in any further.
Maybe the house looks pretty good from the foyer. But if He were to come further in, He’d see the mess in the family room, the dirty dishes in the kitchen. The filth and dirt and mess of an unredeemed life. And we don’t want that. So we try to keep Him from going past the surface of our lives.
Here’s the thing – Jesus doesn’t ask us to clean up before we invite Him in. He doesn’t want us to clean up before we answer the door. Actually, He is like the greatest cleaning service ever. He says, “If you let me in, I’ll wash you and you will be clean; you will be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7).
What good is it if we only look good on the outside? We know what it’s like on the inside, where we really live, and that’s where we long for things to be straightened out. If we only focus on the external, we run the risk of becoming whitewashed tombs – presentable on the outside but only containing something dead on the inside.
When we invite Jesus in, we must let Him get to work cleaning house. He’s going to throw open the curtains we’ve tried to hide behind and let God’s light come shining in. He’s going to throw out the useless junk. We must let Him deeper into the house, into every room.
As Christians, we can’t close off doors in our lives and say, “God, you can have your way everywhere else, but not here. You can be Lord over all the areas of my life, except this one.” Every door must be thrown open, His light brought into every corner. If you refuse to allow Him into a room, chances are that’s where sin is lurking, just waiting for an opportunity to ambush you.
The relationship Christ wants with us is this – He knocks and we respond, we welcome Him in. He patiently and lovingly, with great care, goes through room by room, cleaning, renewing, setting things right. Then He sits down to a meal with us like old friends, and we feast on God’s goodness. Later He kicks off His shoes and we go hang out on the couch, feet up, laughing and sharing, enjoying life together as friends.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.
Ephesians 3:17