He Is Knocking

He is not waiting for you to find Him. He is already at the door.

Most people picture the door the wrong way around. God is behind a locked door, and we are outside it, knocking - trying to be good enough, or sorry enough, or religious enough to be let in.

Scripture turns that picture around:

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, ESV)

He is the one standing outside. And He first spoke those words not to unbelievers but to a church - people who knew His name, kept their worship going, and had grown comfortable without Him.

He Is Knocking is a forty-day devotional for anyone keeping Jesus at arm's length. Not enemies of Christ. Just distant. The one who grew up in church and drifted. The one who still goes every Sunday but has grown comfortable without Him. The one who thinks, Not after what I have done.

It also speaks with care to those unsure how to approach Him after being hurt by people who used His name. A wound is not a sin, and this book never treats it as one.

Over forty days, the book looks at the door from both sides. Who is knocking, and how He comes - through His Word. What keeps the door shut, in the words people actually use: "I am fine." "Later." "I cannot believe that." "I already go to church." Why He keeps knocking anyway. And what He brings when He comes in: forgiveness, a new creation, Baptism, His Supper, and His promise never to leave.

Each day is short: a passage of Scripture, a few minutes of plain teaching, three questions for reflection, and a brief prayer written to be said aloud.

This book will never ask you to work up the strength to let Him in. He knocks through His Word, and it is the Lord who opens hearts (Acts 16:14). Written by a Lutheran layman, these devotions keep the focus on Christ's promises and the grace we cannot earn.

Read it for yourself - or give it to the son, the friend, or the spouse you have been praying for.

Listen. He is knocking.

From the author of Faith of a Mustard Seed, The Road Is Longer Than You Think, and Prayer as Scripture Describes It.