“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelation 3:20
God’s encouragement…
The season of Lent has begun. Those of us who observe it enter a solemn time of deep reflection on Jesus—fully God and fully man. His journey to the cross was taken because sin separates mankind from God. This includes our sin, and the cross is a bitter truth to accept. It brings sorrow, then repentance, as we search our hearts to understand what we have done to cause Jesus to suffer and die.
In addition to Jesus taking this immeasurably costly journey for us, afterward He comes to our door. He makes His presence known by knocking, then He waits for us to answer. He does not demand we do this. Instead, He seeks our invitation to come in. When we hear His knock, will our prayer be to go to the door and listen to His voice? When we hear Him, will our prayer be to turn the knob and open the door? If we do invite Him in, He promises to eat with us! Our dinnertime “prayer conversation” will be blessed beyond our expectation.
As people grafted into Him through faith, we listen to Him intently throughout our meal. We also speak. We start with praise and thanksgiving. Praise for who He is: the only begotten Son of God and our friend (John 15:15). Thanksgiving that He comes to us and that, through Him, we can come to the Father! (John 14:6) This is something only Jesus offers. Next, we lift up prayers of intercession for others. Then we pray for Jesus to bring people and circumstances into our life that will grow our trust in Him. We pray that our understanding of God’s higher ways deepens (Isaiah 55:9).
As our prayer conversation with Jesus draws to a close, we realize we are at home with Him now, even while here on earth and we rejoice! We look forward to our next time together, our next prayer conversation.
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Isaiah 55:9 — “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
John 14:6 — “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
John 15:15 — “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
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Image: original pencil drawing “Prayer Conversations” by Robin Lybeck
