Revelation 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
The verse above contains the most glorious invitation to each one of us. Will we decline or accept it?
Jean-Francis Gaudet (1824-97) was one of the greatest tightrope walkers of all time. Probably his most famous feat came at the Niagara Falls, where a huge crowd gathered to watch his daring escapades. He began by simply walking across, making it look so easy despite the foam, the winds and the sound of roaring water ringing in his ears. He proceeded to repeat the journey several times, whilst cooking an omelette, carrying a pole and even taking a wheelbarrow across. Arriving back to rapturous applause, he asked the Duke of Newcastle in the royal party: “Do you believe I could take a human across?” “Yes,” said the Duke confidently. “Well get in!” came the invitation. The Duke declined, so Gaudet opened it up to anyone. There was a long pause before an old lady came forward. The crowd sat entranced as he wheeled her across both ways, to huge cheers. It turned out the old woman was his mother!
Our Heavenly Father is inviting us to get on board today and embark with him on a journey fraught with danger, except that he is the one leading us and so we are completely safe. Faith is not merely intellectual. It involves an active step of putting our trust in Jesus Christ. John Paton was a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands. He was struggling to translate the word ‘faith’ into the local language, and in the end the best he could come up with was to ‘lean heavily on’. Charles Kingsley wrote in a similar vein: “I do not want merely to possess a faith. I want a faith that possesses me.”
Lord, help me choose to accept your invitation, lean heavily on you, and not just possess a faith but have a faith that possesses me. Amen!
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