May I Enter This Room?

Studying the third chapter of the Book of Revelation, I come to understand that Jesus stands at the door of my heart and knocks, wanting me to open to Him. Reading these lines of Scripture, I realize that I must open the door to the Savior. I invite Jesus into my heart. I ask Him to enter my life. I pray that He would enter this door and believe that it has happened. And this becomes a reality in my life because the Lord desires to answer such prayers. He waits for them. I rejoice. The Lord is in my home, we have dinner together, we communicate, we look into each other's eyes.

And I decide that I have achieved something special and go peacefully to sleep in my bed, leaving my dear Guest alone at the dinner table. The main thing is that He is already in my house, that I have opened the door to Him.

I rejoice in this event. I share what happened with all my friends, but few understand me. And I invite Jesus for breakfast every morning, then throughout the day we do various things together, and in the evening we sit down for dinner again, discussing all the events I have experienced. I am delighted with this new life!

But then strange things begin to happen. After a few days, Jesus approaches a closed door to a secret room that I cannot let anyone into. This room is called "my phone". Christ stands near it and begins to knock, saying: "May I enter this room?" I shrink. I become very frightened. I realize that now all my secret deeds, all my correspondence, and all viewing histories will be revealed. I try to distract Christ's attention from this idea and say in response: "Let's go to the prayer room, the door is always open for You there," to which He replies: "I need to enter the closed room and see what is happening there." I break into a cold sweat. I suddenly realize that many of my gadgets will not please my Friend. And He knocks and calls. What should I do? But I am taught to be cunning and decide to open. I let Christ in and begin to show Him various Bible versions, the Spirit of Prophecy program, Sabbath school lessons. I offer to sing Hymns of Hope together. But it seems that He is not very interested in these applications. He does not even pay attention to them.

Jesus stands near the door of my social page and begins to knock on it, saying: "May I enter this room?" I lose the ability to speak. "Lord, look at my prayer diary. What wonderful experiences and answers are there." But He asks me to show Him my photo albums and social media correspondence. Why exactly here? This is my personal space, my spiritual world! And He stands and knocks. But I again show my cunning, and, opening the door, give Him a look at how I answer assignments in the Agape Love School. But He strives to go where none of my friends have been before. I am so ashamed. Jesus' presence fills the room with light, I see how dirty it is, lower my eyes and burn with shame. And He, smiling, asks: "Can I tidy up here?" I give consent, and He quickly vacuums everything and moves on directly to the photo album. This is already too much! My soul sinks to my feet, I understand what is about to happen. He stands at the door and knocks, saying: "May I enter here too?" I open this door and begin to show Him photographs of nature, flowers, sky, but He again looks where everything is closed from prying eyes. It seems that the earth has fallen from under me, and Jesus, smiling, asks my permission to tidy up there. I lower my eyes and give consent, but now I myself begin to clean. Then enlightenment comes, and I myself run ahead of Christ with a mop, trying to sweep out all the dirty corners that are revealed in the light of the Savior's presence. And He, with a vacuum cleaner, cleans them after me and makes them absolutely beautiful. I am no longer afraid of anything. Jesus does not scold me for my mistakes and past sins, but gently offers to help me get rid of them. I give consent.

Christ asks me if I would like to permanently delete my favorite gadgets. It is very painful for me to hear this, but I decide to give consent.

And Jesus goes further to the most secret part of my house. He approaches the YouTube channel door, stands before it and begins to knock. I lose the ability to speak. Not this! And again I hear the familiar question. I give consent. I had time to delete the viewing history and even clicked on a few videos with useful content. But suddenly I see that my entire history is preserved, and in His light, it appears in fiery letters testifying against me. He carefully examines what I watch, what I like, how much time I spend on this activity, what influence it has on me. I fall to my knees and ask to be forgiven. I am so ashamed that I betrayed His holy trust, nourishing my mind at the table of our enemy. And Jesus, sadly, says that we can delete these things from the phone's memory, but they will forever remain in my memory, and the enemy of the soul will constantly resurrect them in my consciousness, trying to distort and damage my mind. These films and videos have made their influence and opened the mind to the knowledge of sin, they have dulled my perception, and now evil can easily enter me without asking, destroying my life and my happiness. But Jesus assures me that His grace will be sufficient to fight this dirt if I remain in constant connection with Him. I am touched in my heart and ask to cleanse me and fill my consciousness with love. He responds with consent. And I see that in love there is a power to think about the pure and right. Love begins to create something very important, new, beautiful, and wonderful in my life.

I immerse myself in its pure waters and forget about all my sinful past. My dear Friend immerses himself with me, and we swim. He does not remind me of my past mistakes. And I see that, having reached the deepest point of the boundless sea, He takes out my sins and throws them into the water, tying them to stones of His faithfulness to promises. I am ashamed and joyful. I understand that I am clean.

I return to my house. How pleasant it is to live in purity. I walk through the cleaned rooms and call Jesus into them, and He joyfully laughs in response and asks me not to relax. And suddenly I realize that not all rooms in my house are open to the Lord. I feel very bad about this thought, I tense up, and He gently asks: "Will you let Me into these abodes too?" How shameful. Tears well up in my eyes. Why am I so dirty? But I am no longer afraid. I know how Christ loves me, and this helps me give consent. I nod my head and lose peace from the impending shame. But I understand that I must go through this fire as well. I look at Jesus and calm down. He will not harm me. With Him, I can do anything.

Reflection Questions for this Chapter

1. What did you understand from this chapter?

2. Is it enough to just let Christ into your life and then relax?

3. Should I wait for Jesus' questions or better to offer to clean up my heart myself?

4. Are there "closed rooms" in your life that you do not want to let anyone into, not even Jesus?

5. What should I do if Jesus is knocking and I do not want to open?

6. Can I knock on the closed doors of my friends?

7. Please read Hebrews 3:14-15; Matthew 9:13; Romans 2:3-6; Micah 7:18-19; Isaiah 1:16-18 in light of this chapter.