Day 173, Year 1

Repairing the Doors of the House

“In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.” (2 Chronicles 29:3 NASB)

When the Lord Jesus enters a person, from the perspective of the Bible, it is as if the Lord is entering His own holy temple, for the believer’s body is the Lord’s temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). Indeed, when Jesus knocks on a person’s heart’s door, He is treating that person as His temple. In other words, His knocking is an invitation for us to see our lives as His temple. His temple is a place of worship and praising God. And He will dine and have intimate conversations with us. In the early days of the New Testament church, believers would often have meals together before or after their gatherings. Nevertheless, what the previous devotional mentioned was that the Lord dines with each of us individually.

Today’s verse describes the opening and repairment of the house’s doors at the time of Hezekiah. It indicates an important truth—opening the door often reveals the need for repair, such as inflexibility, defects, being too tight or too loose, etc. It is usually only after use that the flaws in the doors become apparent. Similarly, whenever we uncover that our hearts’ doors are not in proper condition, we need to invite Jesus to mend the defects or solve the problems. In short, we must welcome Him to dwell in us and make repairments according to His will.

Some people need Jesus’ guidance to open their doors of hearts and remove all the obstacles that prevent them from opening. If we had turned the original door into a wall, now is the time to restore it. Moreover, some might ask, is there still a need to repair the door after Jesus enters? Should we not just shut the door forever? With Jesus already present, is there still a need for others to come in? In fact, after He enters our lives, He can continue to send His messengers, both humans and angels, to strengthen our faith. Thus, we who open the doors for Him often need to repair our doors so as to safeguard the security of our lives and prepare to welcome the Lord’s messengers in future.

God often uses His messengers at different times to convey His will. The heart’s door is the filter through which we receive or reject external information and people, where we discern what is good. The disciples in the New Testament welcomed Jesus, but their accounts in the Gospels differ in some minor points, perhaps due to the varying conditions of their hearts’ doors. In the same way, we individually encounter the Lord Jesus with slightly different experiences, allowing His unique purpose to be fulfilled in our lives.

Reflection questions:

1) Do you consider your life to be a place of worshipping God, a holy temple only belonging to Him? Why?

2) Is your heart’s door repaired, equipped with good discernment,