Oakwood Church Fresh Start Women's Devotional Encouragement for Today Hartland Delafield

When God Knocks
By Susan Klein

“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 him and he with me.”
Revelation 3:20

A story goes...One day, God promised an elderly lady that He would visit her that day. So she got ready. She scrubbed, and cleaned, and polished, and dusted, and put everything in order. Then she sat down and waited for God to arrive. Suddenly, someone knocked. She raced to the door and quickly pulled it open, only to see a poor beggar standing outside. "No, not today," the lady said. “I am waiting for God to come any minute now... I can't be bothered with you." The beggar left as hungry as he had come. A bit later there was another knock. The lady opened the door even faster than before. A poor old man stood there. "Sorry," said the lady, "I can't take care of you today." With that she closed the door in his face. Quite a bit later, someone else knocked at the door. Again, it was a ragged hungry beggar. She sent him off empty-handed and sat down to wait for her guest of honor. Evening came and still there was no sign of God. Finally she went to bed with a heavy heart. “God, why didn’t you come?” she asked as she drifted off to sleep. In her dream, the Lord came to her and said, "I came to you three times today and all three times you turned me away."

Has God ever come knocking at your door in various ways for you to see Him, but in your preoccupation with other things, you missed Him? I know it’s happened to me. Like the time I was in a hurry at the grocery store and bagged my own groceries instead of letting the mentally handicapped young man do it because he was too slow. Or the time when I saw the people with the religious pamphlets going door-to-door in my neighborhood and I pretended not to be home because I didn’t want to be bothered. I have to wonder how many opportunities I’ve missed!

God wants us to see Him, but our eyes have to be open. We need to clear out the junk so we can be focused. We also need to slow down so we don’t rush past Him in our haste. I believe that the more we see Him, the more He will show Himself to us.

The next time He knocks, let’s be ready! Let’s open the door and see Him as...

GOING DEEPER:
1. Think back on past missed opportunities to see God. What had your attention instead? How can you avoid missing Him the next time?

FURTHER READING:
Matthew 25:31-46

Susan is a wife and mother of two. She is the Coordinator of Oakwood’s Tuesday a.m. Bible Study and one of its teachers.