“Let me in.” How many times have you ever said these words in your lifetime?  I’ve said them a bunch as a father to three kids. I have said those words to my sister, my parents, my grandparents, my friends, and on and on I could go.  I’ve never said “Let me in” to God. I cannot think of a time when I went looking for God and begged him to let me come into his presence. There are those of you out in cyberspace reading this article who believe that you must go looking for God and try to find him.

Jesus Is Knocking

Jesus says: “Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me.”  (Revelation 3:20 HCSB, emphasis mine)

“What man among you, who has one-hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it?”  (Luke 15:4 HCSB, emphasis mine)

“When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today I must stay at your house.’  So he quickly came down and welcomed Him joyfully. All who saw it began to complain, ‘He’s gone to lodge with a sinful man!’ But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor,  Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much!’ ‘Today salvation has come to this house,’ Jesus told him, ‘because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”  (Luke 19:5-10 HCSB, emphasis mine)

Do you see the pattern?  Jesus is knocking, is willing to go in, will go after a lost sheep, and has come to seek and save.  Does that sound like someone who is waiting around for you to ask permission to get in to where He is?

Consider the father of the prodigal son:

But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.  He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20b HCSB)

The father didn’t wait for the son to walk up to the front porch, ring the doorbell, and beg the father for entrance back into the home.  The father ran to meet the son.  This is how God works.

The prophet Ezekiel also wrote this down about God: “For this is what the Lord God says: See, I Myself will search for My flock and look for them.  As a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will look for My flock.  I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a cloudy and dark day.” (Ezekiel 34:11-12 HCSB)

From Old Testament times we have a picture of God as a shepherd who is searching for those whom he cares for, even in bad weather.  Even in tough times. Even when we have turned to go the opposite direction.

Let Me In

Let me in?  No. That’s not how God operates. We are not shut out from the kingdom of heaven.  On the contrary, we have been invited in.

“I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” (John 15:15-16 HCSB)

No longer slaves. Chosen.

You are not shut out from a relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ, you have an open invitation.  Will you accept the invitation?