Outside the Gate

Have you seen that person standing outside the fence, looking in, wondering how to gain inside access? Sometimes, just the fact they are not allowed entry is enough to make them desire it above everything else. They may have no concept of what awaits them on the other side, but they lose rationale just seeking that which they don’t possess.

As a child, there were factors outside my control that hindered me from my own quest to gain entry. Satan sold me a lie, and I was too young to know the difference. Once you buy the lie it can be challenginig to trade it for the truth, because it becomes your truth. You begin to believe you are unworthy, unlovable, and unforgiveable. You believe God is angry, unloving, unjust, and unforgiving, and intolerant of your failure.

We all want to belong, don’t we? When I was younger, I recall my father’s words: “No man is an island.” In Ecclesiastes Solomon speaks about the tears of the oppressed… how they had not one to comfort them.

In chapter 4 He reminds us two are better than one; they keep each other warm, and if one falls, the other picks him up.

We all need a friend to partner with us in life… someone who lifts us up, when we are feeling down.; someone to laugh with, and someone to cry with.

Is there someone in your life, lookiing at the fence, waiting for an invitation to join? Open the gate… let them in. Lift them up, and offer protection. Tell them about the One who will never leave them or forsake them… the one who died, so they could have life. Tell them about the loving God you serve… how He is just waiting for them to invite Him in. Reassure them the fence was conquered by Jesus, so we could come in relationship with him. Let them know you serve a merciful God who desires a relationship with us. Then just love them.