To Encourage You

Revelation 3:19-20 “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Have you ever noticed how interrupting a knock on the door is?  You may be quietly eating your dinner, reading a book, watching tv, but then there’s this irritating sound on the door. Every time it happens our pet dog goes wild!  It’s meant to get our attention, so to deal with it we need to stop what we’re doing, no matter what it is, and attend to the knocking, for there are only two ways for the knocking to stop: either to totally ignore it and hope that it goes away or to get up and answer the door. 

Those are some of the thoughts that came to my mind this morning as I meditated on the verses above.  Here Jesus is speaking to the church at Laodicea.  It was a church filled with people who smugly thought everything was perfect in their lives but who were blind to their decrepit spiritual condition.  To there shock,  Jesus calls them out for this and tells them “you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”  He then tells them the words in the verses above.  He speaks about reproof and discipline that is in store for those whom He loves but who have the attitude of the Laodiceans.  And then He tells them that He stands at the door and knocks. 

Well, how does He do this?  Obviously, He’s not talking about a literal door and a literal knock.  Could He be simply referring back to the words, “I reprove and discipline”? 

Throughout Scripture we see how God works in our lives so often through difficulties.  Like the interruptions to normal everyday living that a knock on the door can bring, so trials and suffering can interrupt our lives that may have otherwise been going along just fine.  It is our reaction to those trials that is so critical.  You see, if we just try to ignore the trials and hope they go away, the trials may get worse, not better.  It’s like hearing a knock on the door and trying to ignore it even when the knocking gets louder, more persistent, and frankly, more irritating.  But why do we answer the door?  Is it to just get the knocking to cease? Perhaps that’s the effect, but that’s not our first thought. No, we answer the door because we want to find out who is doing the knocking.  In other words, it’s not the knocking that is our focus, it’s the person that is doing the knocking that is on our mind.  Likewise, have you ever thought about how that trial you are currently facing and that is interrupting your life may be the result of the God Who loves you working to get your attention?  Do you realize that He may be standing right outside your door? 

You see, the Jesus who spoke the words in the verses above loves us too much to let us go on our merry way to the disastrous consequences that ignoring Him can bring.  He comes to us and interrupts our otherwise “wonderful” lives by knocking at the door.  Yet He is the kindest and most polite being in all the universe, and if you won’t open the door, He won’t just barge on in.  We must invite Him.  We must choose to give Him our attention. We must open the door. And what do we find if we do this? We find One that will “come into (our life) and eat with (us) and (we) with (Him).”  In other words, we will enter into a relationship of fellowship beyond our imagination with the very Creator of the universe.  It’s like the words in the passage above allude to: it will be like feasting with a king. 

It’s with similar language that God speaks to us through His prophet Isaiah in the following words: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David” (Isaiah 55:1-3). 

It all comes down to how we respond to the invitation. Will we (be it us as individuals, our family, our church, or our nation) get up and answer the door and invite the King of Glory to come in, or will we ignore Him to our own detriment?