“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 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 that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:19-20
We all want an encounter with the healing, blessing and deliverance Provider but many of us choose to ignore the truth that it is repentance that opens the door for God to enter. In this life, nothing good comes without discipline. But it takes maturity that comes from faith to understand that God works through circumstances of life and can use anything to discipline us, if we go off track. From this angle, trials, tribulations and difficulties can truly become our friends as they force us to reconcile our heart with God, and submit ourselves to His will.
King David, a man after God’s heart understood this truth when rather than retaliating and punishing Shimei for cursing him, he said to his men, “Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today.” 2 Samuel 16:11-12
David knew that the way we respond to our discipline matters to God, because God tests our hearts to reward us. Our response to correction determines our future in Christ. Humility welcomes correction as a blessing and responds with the right adjustment of the heart toward righteousness and opens the door of mercy and favour. Pride despises and rejects correction and responds with a rebellious attitude of heart and triggers judgment.
James 2:13 says that mercy triumphs over judgment. We need a greater understanding of God’s heart toward us. He wants the best for us and nothing good happens without correction. God is our Father and loves us too much to leave us without correction. He is standing at the door of your heart, knocking. Let your repentance open the door.
