Friday, February 28th

Have you ever locked yourself out of your house? The only thing worse than locking yourself out is getting locked out by someone else. One evening I went out the back door of my house to throw out the garbage. The A/C was running so I closed the door. My son, who was in his room with headphones on listening to music decided to come out to get something and saw that the door was unlocked. He decided that he’d better lock the door. He was worried about getting himself into trouble, because he has a bad habit of leaving the doors unlocked. I tried to reenter the house only to find the door locked, so I began to knock and call out and no one answered. My wife was taking a shower and my son was listening to music, so neither one could hear me. Needless to say I wasn’t very happy.

In the Bible we find a story that depicts Jesus locked out trying to get in. And get this; he was locked out of his own church. Inside there was a group of good church people that were so blessed and so busy that they had not realized that they had left Jesus locked out. In this story we find Jesus knocking on the door and calling out to anyone who could hear him.

I want you to pause for a few seconds and imagine yourself in Jesus’ shoes. How would you feel? What would you do?
Once you were able to get anyone’s attention and the door opened, what would say to them? Now I want you to fill in the blank, remember that you’re in Jesus’ shoes.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and ___________.

I don’t know about you, but I can think of a few things that I would have liked to do and say.

We Christians can become so busy that without realizing it we leave God locked out of our lives. From God’s perspective, His desire is to have a relationship with each of us characterized by intimacy. His priority for our lives is the relationship, not what we’re doing or not doing. If anyone opens the door He will come in and dine with that person. He will not be mad because you left him out. On the contrary he so much desires to have a relationship that if anyone opens the door, he just wants to come in and have a relationship with that person.

Bible reading
Revelation 3:20

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 that person, and they with me.

Heavenly Father I want to enjoy an intimate relationship with you. Help me not to get so distracted by what I do that I leave you locked out when you are knocking at my door.