Do Not Disturb

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,

 and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:20

Of all the verses in the Bible, this one is probably the most misapplied.  We hear it used often at revivals.  We have probably used it ourselves when sharing Christ with the lost.  However, what many Christians don't realize is that this verse was intended for believers rather than for the lost.

Now don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean that we cannot use this verse when leading someone to the Lord.  However, since Jesus was speaking to us, the Church, when He said this; surely it is vital that we look at what He said in that context.  Jesus is knocking at the door of the Christian's heart (our heart) and asking to come in.  How can that be?, we may ask ourselves. As a believer, we have already accepted Him into our hearts.  Why would Jesus need to tell us that He is standing at our heart's door and knocking to come in?  The reason is that many of us have hung a "Do Not Disturb" sign on our heart.

Why would a believer hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign on their heart?  The answer is simple enough: We are afraid of what Jesus might ask us to do.  After all, if we open our hearts completely to God, He may ask us to risk our jobs by witnessing to a lost co-worker.  Or He may question the emphasis that we place on our children's sports programs.  If we answer the knock on our heart, Jesus might come in and interrupt our weekly schedule- and that might mean missing our favorite TV show or the time we spend with our favorite hobby.  Opening that door might invite Jesus to begin messing with our finances; and do we really want to answer to Him about how we are spending our money?  Even worse, He may ask us to re-evaluate into whose hands we have placed the education of our children- and why.

Face it, opening the door to our hearts is scary.  There is just no telling where it might take you, but I do know this:  Opening the door to Christ will take you off that sofa and into a dark, lost world.  It will bring you hardships and sorrow- and you may never be able to call another minute your own.  But by letting Christ in, you will begin to have the kind of spiritual relationship that you were meant to have.  So throw open that door and let Christ use you to change the world.

Gotta go.  I think I hear someone knocking at the door...