When you imagine Jesus knocking on the door of your heart, what do you experience?
Maybe you’re immediately filled with anticipation, and you rush to the door to welcome your beloved friend. Maybe you feel a bit of hesitation, unsure if you can trust the person knocking who still feels a bit like a stranger. Or maybe you’re flooded with anxiety and fear, expecting the Lord to start banging on the door and demanding that you open up.
Whatever you feel, I encourage you to notice that and take it to prayer.
We all have parts of our hearts that we are afraid to let the Lord into. We all have areas of woundedness in our stories and negative experiences where broken people have let us down. This often leads us to project our experiences of others onto God. We can see Him as just another person with ulterior motives who is going to expect too much of me and who at the end of the day will end up letting me down, too.
But I’d like to propose another image to ponder in prayer — the why behind His knocking — which comes from the book of Revelation: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20)
I will dine with him, and he with me.
The Lord wants to dine with you. He wants to spend time with you. This is why He knocks. We do not have a God of ulterior motives, but rather a God of hospitality that has only one motivation, which is to be with you always — Emmanuel, God with us. We have a God who cares to knock and enter in so that He might be with you.
And as He knocks, He waits patiently. A bishop I worked with in San Diego always used to say, “God could never be accused of breaking and entering,” because we have a God who asks our permission and respects it.
But the invitation doesn’t end there. Revelation 3:21 continues, pointing toward the profound reality to come: “I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne.”
Jesus knocks at the door of your heart and anticipates your answer. He can’t wait to see your face in the threshold as you open the door from the inside and give Him your yes. With your permission He can take the next step, entering fully into your life that He may lead you to the eternal Heavenly banquet, where He desires to dine with you forever.
Jesus is here at your door and He’s knocking. Will you answer?
