“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).
In my previous post I wrote about God speaking to us all the time. Today’s message is about our response when God speaks to us. In the verse above we see that God requires a response from us – We are to open the door.
When God called Samuel, he answered: “Speak, for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:10).
Understanding why God is calling to us may help us to know how to respond. God created us for His purposes, and He is calling us into a relationship with him. It may be difficult for us to comprehend that Jesus is alive and with us and that He sees all that we do, experience, and think. The Bible assures us that He is alive, that He sits at the right hand of the Most High Father and that He is coming back to rule and reign on earth. This Jesus loves us so much that He died so that we can become His friends and spend eternity with Him. This friendship is not only for after we die. We are called to enter into relationship with Jesus now, while we are still alive.
Let us remind ourselves of the verse, “I am the vine, and you are the branches” (John 15:5). This connection between the vine and the branch is symbolic of the union God wants with us. Therefore, when we read: “I stand at the door and knock”, we should understand that Jesus is calling us into closeness with Him marked by friendship and eating together. When we are connected like this, we (the branches) are enriched by the water and nutrients in the vine.
The first step therefore in answering the call is to come into unity with God by opening the door of our hearts to His Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This means, making a decision to come into union with Christ and expressing this desire of our hearts to Him in prayer.
The next step in answering God’s call is to set aside time to get to know God. For any relationship to succeed there needs to be dedicated time to get to know one another. We get to know God better when we read our Bibles, when we pray, when we worship and when we just sit quietly in His presence and reflect on His goodness and love. Last time we said God speaks to us through the Bible, in dreams and in visions and through other people. We hear Him speak when we dedicate time to listen for His voice.
Thirdly, answering the call requires that we remain obedient to what God requires from us. Within any healthy relationship there are certain things we must abide by. For example, we are to remain faithful to the person we are in relationship with. God requires the same from us. God has given us His commandments and we should live our lives accordingly. By reading the Bible and studying His Word, we get to know what is expected from us in this relationship and what are the fruits of being in relationship with God. More on that next time.
MY PRAYER
Father God, thank you that you are calling us into relationship with You. Father, thank you for the assurances from Your Word which states: “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). Father, please forgive us for being so caught up in live that we do not make time to hear your voice or to answer Your call. Father, we do want to get to know You better and walk in relationship with You. Please draw us to You and remove all obstacles that hinder us from getting closer to You. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Aman.