More Than a Guest

The owner of my apartment was invited to come for Christmas dinner. She graciously accepted. She arrived, right on time, ringing the doorbell at precisely 2:00 p.m. on the afternoon of December 25th. She doesn't have a key to my apartment even though she's the owner. She has to wait for me to let her in.

I thought of her when I read this morning's verse. This one is usually used in the context of evangelism. However, as I look toward a new year and consider the old one I realize that it applies just as much to me as it does to the one who doesn't believe.

John writes: "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 him, and he with me" —Revelation 3:20.

No, I don't need to be saved all over again, but I do need to not overload my "house" with so many other guests that there isn't room for the owner to come in.

Life gets so full of activities and people that sometimes Jesus ends up on the porch with the door closed firmly behind him. He knocks (directly in proportion to the challenges that I face I suspect—somehow we need challenges to remember that the Conqueror is waiting in the wings to look after them.)

It is my desire for the new year to let the Owner take fuller possession of what is already his. I think I'll go and answer that door now—the resolution only become reality when the Lord comes in to make it so.