Throughout scripture, we see Jesus giving direction and speaking in parables about knocking on a closed door. It paints a beautiful picture, simple and easy, with QUICK results.
“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you.” (Matthew 7:7 ISV)
Easy enough, right?
Closed doors yield no answers. No view of what was on the other side. The tightly closed door, locked and silent, is anything but captivating. It’s aggravating, frustrating, and can test every nerve in your being to keep knocking while remaining patient with a humble right attitude.
Staring at that closed door year after year and continuing to knock will cause your knuckles to be bruised and battered and your arm to be weary. It will provide you with a LOT of time to question yourself, your sanity, and every bad attitude you have inside of you will come out! Stuff you didn’t even know about yourself will be revealed.
Be prepared for inner battles, temper tantrums, pity parties, mental breakdowns that can lead you to the decision to quit. Then when you decide to come back, you find that the same door is still locked, still silent, and producing all the same questions.
“Is God even there? Is He listening to me?”
The Fear:
“Maybe this is not the right door? Perhaps that’s why it’s not opening?”
The Control:
“God, I need you to open this door right now. I need my spouse to contact me. I need my spouse to love me again. If you don’t answer my prayers and open this door, I am done. I am moving on and taking this closed door as a sign.”
Then the Aggravation, Self-pity, and Anger:
“This is not fair! I don’t understand any of this. It seems cruel. Why would God want me to stand here suffering for so long and not open the door?”
The Weariness and Frustrations:
“I can’t do this anymore; I’m so tired.”
The questions are relentless. God is after our answers, but more so HOW we pursue and come to them.
Standing in front of a locked quiet door makes us question a lot of things. But how we come up with the answers is what produces character. That is part of the purpose and the fruit that comes from the closed-door!
How are you and who are you going to seek those answers from? Are you going to choose to stand firm? Are you just going to keep on questioning? Are you going to trust God no matter what? Are you going to consistently stand on the promises God spoke to you and keep reminding Him so He won’t forget?
“On your walls, Jerusalem, I have placed sentries; They must never be silent day or night. They must remind the LORD of his promises And never let him forget them.” (Isaiah 62:6 GNT)
Are you going to listen to all the bystanders who mock you and try to convince you to quit?
Your persistent knocking is God’s way of maturing you and refining you as you grow in faith, all the while testing your beliefs and attitudes. He is not doing this to destroy the good parts of you, but to remove the bad ones.
Through these trials, we learn to overcome our fears, control issues, and impatience.
This learning process continues when resistance comes. He is teaching us to have patience and perseverance and to trust Him and have a positive attitude through all the challenges that come our way!
Jesus knows and understands knocking! He patiently, persistently knocks at the door of our hearts every day awaiting our acceptance! Follow His lead!
“Behold, I stand at the door and I shall knock. If a man listens to my voice and will open the door, I also shall come in and I shall have supper with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20 Aramaic Bible in Plain English)
He also instructed them through this parable as well.
And Jesus said to his disciples, “Suppose one of you should go to a friend’s house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don’t have any food for him!’ And suppose your friend should answer from inside, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking. And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks. ( Luke 11:5-10 GNT)
When you persistently knock on a stubborn door that won’t budge, it may seem like no results are being produced, but within YOU they are! The result that we are all after is the kind of character that Jesus exemplified.</