Make Room for Jesus

 '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 that person, and they with me.' - Revelation 3:20

Imagine this, if you keep on adding so much stuff into your room without cleaning it from time to time, at some point your room will become cluttered. And if you try to look for something, it gets increasingly difficult to locate it. This is because you are holding so many things that are unneeded. To make your room tidy again, you need to declutter. Sometimes, to properly declutter your room, it is essential to involve a third party. Someone who will help you to get rid of what you don't need, because if you do it on your own, you will probably keep everything. 

In the same way, we allow so many things into our lives and into our hearts, and rather than letting go of them, we choose to hold onto them. We hold on to the hurtful things people did to us, we hold on to the pain, the unforgiveness, the shame, the guilt, and all kinds of negative thoughts that are working against us. By holding on to them, it slows us down; we can't operate at our optimum, and it sucks out all our joy and energy. 

To live your life lighter again, you need to go through the process of decluttering your life. But this time, you don't have to do it alone; you need to let Jesus in to help you declutter your life. Jesus says in 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 that person, and they with me.' Jesus expresses His desire to come into our lives. He knows the struggles we go through every day. He sees the weight of the burdens we put on our shoulders, and He's willing to come into our lives and help us declutter our lives. 

Jesus is at the door of your heart, knocking, wanting to come in. To open the door of your heart to Jesus has to come from a place of surrender, knowing that you can't reorganise your life on your own; you need Jesus to help you do it. When you let Jesus in, He will help you get rid of some of the boxes of guilt that you've kept for so long. He will help you get through the pain that has been restricting you from moving forward. When you let Jesus into your heart, He will show you some of the skeletons in your closet that you've been scared to face on your own. He will help you face and overcome them with His strength that runs through you. 

Sometimes we let Jesus into our hearts, but we don't hand over the reins to Him. When Jesus begins to reorganise our lives and put away the things we don't need in our lives, most of the time we resist. What we often say is, 'Lord, don't touch that area. I love it, or 'Jesus, don't ask me to forgive them, do you know what they did to me?' or 'Not my past, don't touch that box.'

You've got to be genuine in your surrender to Jesus. Jesus has good things in store for you. He is longing to be good to you, and He wants you to reach your full destiny. He said in John 10:10, "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." Jesus wants you and me to live life abundantly. Not to live life in regrets, in worries, in shame, in guilt or in struggles because of too much clutter, but to the fullest. 

When you let Jesus into your life, He comes with one agenda: To make your life new. When you surrender your life to Jesus, He goes straight to work. He will knock down walls that you've built around your heart, He will break chains that have held you down for years, throw out boxes of your past which you've held on to for so long and burn and smash every idol that comes before God in your life. 

In Deuteronomy 12:2-3, the Israelites were commanded that once they entered into their Promised Land, they were to 'Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.' 

When Jesus is done breaking down, smashing and burning the things you do not need, things that have taken God's place, He then begins to rebuild your life. The process that God uses to decutter our lives are not always the easiest ones, but this is what God promises once He's done decluttering: 'But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds.' - Jeremiah 30:17. In 1 Peter 5:10 says, 'after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.'

We've got to admit that God has the best plans for each one of us. He knows us by name, and when He goes ahead and breaks things in our lives, He does it for our own good. God is the Masterbuilder. Our part to play is surrendering to Him and patiently enduring as He continues to work on us. In the end, this is what will become of us when we endure the process of rebuilding: "Instead of your shame, you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours"- Isaiah 61:7

God is the Masterbuilder in our lives. He stands at the door of our hearts, knocking, wanting to come in and start working on something new and beautiful for us. He wouldn't show up at the door of our hearts, knocking if our lives were perfect and complete. We need Jesus in our hearts, and it is impossible to reorganise and declutter our hearts without Him. The Masterbuilder has the right tools and an overflow of resources to bring to form what He plans for each one of us. Our part is to let Him do the work. I pray that we may surrender to God the keys to our hearts and let Him in so He may work something beautiful for us. Be blessed.