“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'” John 14:6

“When God shuts one door,” Don Quixote says in The Man of La Mancha, “He opens another.” Or, some have said, “When God closes a door, He opens a window.”  That’s not actually in the Bible although the book of Proverbs says that when a person lives his life in alignment with God’s ways, God will direct His path (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Doors, do, however, figure prominently in some important narratives of the Bible. One of them is found in the very last book called Revelation.  In this passage, it’s you and I who have the responsibility of opening the most important door of all: that’s the door of the heart.

Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” (Revelation 3:20) “if anyone opens the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends.” God’s entrance into the heart is invitation only.  He won’t ever force His way in. Because He made us in His image, we are capable of reason and have individual wills that must choose to move toward or against God. If you’ve ever sensed that knocking and ignored it, you may not hear it again.  That’s the person of the Holy Spirit quietly speaking to your spirit.

But remember this, nothing you have ever done or will ever do, will rescind the invitation (John 6:37). “God is patient toward you,” 2 Peter 3:9 says, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

 

Resource reading: John 3:19-20