I have been holding this for about a week to make sure I had permission to post. Mandy provided these comments from a Ransomed Heart reading that we have referred to many times already in this blog. This one is from November 11th (at bottom). The class she is referring to is the Goals of Parenting Communication Part 1 about Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman.
I just had some thoughts about today's reading and wanted to share them. I've not read 'Captivating' yet (it's half price this week at Family Christian and I picked it up while waiting for Michael at the doctor, but haven't gotten to it yet), but reading this passage made me think about how most people have that one room in their house that when company comes, they quickly run and shut the door. Do you know what I mean? Like a 'catch all' kind of room that you keep meaning to clean out, but can never find the time or the things in the room just don't have a home and are hard to find a home for? I was just thinking that if our hearts were our homes and we invite Jesus in, but then shut off that one place, that room, where we've been hurt too badly, are we taking full advantage of the gift our houseguest has brought to us. And then I got to thinking about the passage of scripture we discussed Sunday in POPs about the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus allowed her the opportunity to invite him in, and hinted at 'hey, what's behind that closed door' with the comment to bring her husband. She quickly dismissed him saying, 'nothing', and yet He still knew what was there and let her know that He knew and that it was still okay. I hope this makes some sense. It just got me thinking that Jesus already knows what's in that bad place in our heart and He still loves us. It's our choice to let Him come in and help us clean it up. It's His gift to us that we should take full advantage of.
Invite Him In There is a famous passage of Scripture which many people have heard in the context of an invitation to know Christ as Savior. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in…” (Rev 3:20). He does not force himself upon us. He knocks, and waits for us to ask him in. There is an initial step, the first step of this which we call salvation. We hear Christ knocking and we open our hearts to him as Savior. It is the first turning. But the principle of this “knocking and waiting for permission to come in” remains true well into our Christian life.
You see, we all pretty much handle our brokenness in the same way – we mishandle it. It hurts too much to go there. So we shut the door to that room in our heart and we throw away the key – much like Lord Craven locks the Secret Garden upon the death of his wife, and buries the key. But that does not bring healing. Not at all. It might bring relief – for awhile. But never healing. Usually it orphans the little girl in that room, leaves her to fend for herself. The best thing we can do is to let Jesus come in, open the door and invite him in to find us in those hurting places.
It might come as a surprise that Christ asks our permission to come in and heal, but he is kind, and the door is shut from the inside, and healing never comes against our will. In order to experience his healing we must also give him permission to come in to the places we have so long shut to anyone. Will you let me heal you? He knocks through our loneliness. He knocks through our sorrows. He knocks through events that feel too close to what happened to us when we were young – a betrayal, a rejection, a word is spoken, a relationship is lost. He knocks through many things, waiting for us to give him permission to enter in.
(Captivating, 99-100)
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