No Open Doors
Andi Merrill / Worship Arts Pastor
“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’.”
Holiness has been on my heart ... for a while. In so many things in life, the saying holds true that “the more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.” I’ve been a Christian since I was 3 or 4 years old. I’ve grown up in the church and never had the propensity to really rebel against much of anything. I’ve always been “good”, but the closer I get to God the more I realize that “good” is something I’m not and probably won’t ever be until heaven. If I check my motives at every turn, can I truly walk through a day without sinning? Can I actually compare myself to Jesus in every interaction I have and know that I haven’t done (or not done) or said something out of selfishness? Maybe as I continue to grow, I’ll feel differently, but lately I’ve been confronting some of my own ugliness, and I don’t like it!
God calls us to be holy; set apart for Him. It means not having one foot in heaven and one foot in sin. It means closing doors on our sinful nature, so we don’t give Satan a foothold to do more damage in us or through us. I listened to a podcast recently about “open doors” – the things in our lives that inadvertently make space for Satan to come in and mess around with us. Anything sinful that we don’t repent of is considered an open door. It’s us just giving Satan permission to come and have a hay day! Open doors can also be things a little less obvious, like past trauma that hasn’t been dealt with, unforgiveness, anger or bitterness that we let build up because we’re trying to keep the peace, or that little white lie we told to save face – no big deal. I don’t want to be giving Satan permission to do ANYTHING, so I’m now in the practice of closing those open doors every day. I take a few minutes before bed, or as I’m driving in each morning to repent of anything – known or unknown – that I’ve done, said, or thought that would possibly allow an open door to be left open. I ask God to show me the things I’m not even aware of so that I can repent and turn away from those things.
I believe God is sifting. He’s calling people to Himself in a fresh way! He’s asking for repentant hearts and those who are willing to be stripped down. He wants to transform every single one of us into His likeness, and until I look like Jesus, I need to recognize where I’m off and come before God to close that door. I then ask for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit into all of those places that have been cleaned out because I don’t want space left open for other influences! “Be holy as I am holy.” We cannot do that apart from Christ. We can’t transform ourselves, but we can come daily to Him, repent, and close any open doors that would steer us away from Jesus!