By Shirley Rosemarie Evans
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door,
I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Revelation 3:20
I consider myself very blessed to have relocated to a new country and have made some very close friends. I have two sisters-in-law, Lady & Sistee, who I see daily. Their doors are always open to me for conversation, support, and prayer. Then I have my girlfriends, Rae & Neese, my husband calls us the three amigos. We will go out of town in a minute to a new restaurant, or sometimes we will just gather in one of our homes, and we will cook or order food in, and we will talk, share our joys, our struggles and our woes, and we will pray for each other. It’s doing life together that builds relationships that move beyond polite conversation to becoming confidants and creating lasting intimacy.
Christ is longing to share intimacy with His people. In His message to the seven churches of Asia, He concludes His personal address on the state of the church with a plea to His people. He lets them know that He is at the door waiting to be invited in. He knocks, and He waits. Perhaps we should pause for a moment and consider that Christ is actually speaking to believers. His church! Can you imagine that the people of God gather for worship, and yet the guest of honour, the reason for the gathering, has been forgotten? He is outside the door. patiently waiting. It is so easy to get caught up in doing church- meeting our agendas, quotas, and obligations, yet we forget that Christ is the centre of it all.
Christ has called us to a relationship, and building relationships involves investing time, opening the doors of our hearts to His presence. Intimacy is developed through:
Prayer: Talking to Jesus, sharing our hearts with Him. Giving Him all our hurts, our desires and our failings. Like a best friend we can trust Jesus with our secrets, and all the stuff we have hidden away in the closets of our hearts. Remember, prayer is not just us talking; we make space for the Holy Spirit to speak to us.
Listening: We listen for His voice and His instructions in prayer and in random moments of our day. It could be as we do the dishes at the kitchen sink, or as we drive through rush hour traffic, have the expectation that He does and will speak. He also speaks to us through His words, so spending time in the Word is essential in the life of the believer, not just as a tick box exercise but as an essential way to hear His voice. Hebrews 4:12 “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” It is the voice of God on the page. The question we ask each time we open the Word is: God, what are you saying to me today? How can I live out this word in my life?
Presence: We actively and intentionally make time in all the busyness of life to spend time with Jesus. We cultivate His presence as we sing our love songs, we read His word, we quiet our mind and, in the stillness, we wait for Him.
Trust: There can be no lasting relationship without trust, and we serve a God who can be trusted. We learn to trust Him in every season of our lives and in every circumstance. We trust in His care and His sovereignty, knowing that He will never leave us or forsake us, and He is always in control.
Obedience: Where there is trust, obedience naturally follows. We follow His commands, we submit to His Lordship over every area of our lives, we love the things He loves, and we hate the things He hates. We deny ourselves, and we take up our cross and follow Him. Easy to write but not always easy to do. It takes a lifetime of living and growing in His grace so that we are conforming daily to become more like Jesus.
As we develop intimacy with Jesus, our delight in Him will grow. Like any good marriage that has weathered the storms and stood the test of time, our love for Him will grow deeper, and our hearts will be softened by His presence, and we will overflow with delight.
Dear Lord, our God, we acknowledge that we do not always have an open door for you to come in and to take your place as Lord of every area of our lives. We desire real intimacy with you, so we ask that you help us be genuine before you, and that we cultivate a genuine relationship with you so that our lives will declare that we have been with Jesus. We ask and give thanks in the name of Jesus.
