Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 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 3:19-20
You are shopping at a local store, and you notice a teenager slide something off the rack and into their pocket. This person is stealing! Kids these days, you think to yourself. You are tempted to say something to the store owner, and you are on your way up to the front as the other person heads for the exit. As they turn, you notice something horrible. IT’S MY KID!!
“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline,” Jesus says. Some random child you might report to the authorities, but your kid? How does that change it? I don’t know about you, but I am marching over to them and dealing with this one myself- as well as letting the store owner have a go at it. We might walk by or overlook a person we don’t know, but never our own children.
Jesus has taken a personal interest in you. Your sins are personally offensive to him. He is upset when you continue to fail. And he refuses to look the other way as you allow yourself to be defined by weakness, sinfulness, and failure. Jesus loves you! And because he does, Jesus will not allow you to continue down your destructive and harmful path. He will discipline you.
So be zealous and repent. You can do it!
And Jesus isn’t demanding you “pick yourself up by the bootstraps.” For goodness’ sake, Jesus has told us that he is merely waiting for us to hear his voice and open the door. He wants to come in and be intimately involved in our lives.
Jesus said these words to the church in Laodicea, which was full of lukewarm Christians, seeing no need for God in their lives. “We have everything we need! We’re doing just fine!” But after a good long look in the mirror of God’s Word, they saw they were wretched and in desperate need of rescue. They needed to change.
You can change. You have the power of God in you. You have Jesus on your side. You know the right path. You can see where God is leading you. Repentance is a reliance on Jesus above all things, a willingness to let go of whatever might hinder you or hold you back. Repentance is ears open to cry of Jesus, “Hey! Let me in! We need to talk.”
You can do it. Open up your heart and mind to Jesus, willing to make a change as you follow him into eternity.
Dear Jesus, we hear you. We welcome you into our lives, grateful that you care enough to call us out on our sin and carry us on our way to eternity. We seek to grow closer to you. Grow our zeal. Embolden us to change our hearts and minds, turning them solely to you. In your name we pray, AMEN.