The key to every door you will face today

source: Jerusalem Prayer Team

Do not close the door to God's kingdom

When the Lord Jesus knocks on the door of your heart are you ready to answer and receive him (Revelations 3:20)? The Lord offers each one of us an open door to the kingdom of God, but we can shut ourselves out if we ignore or reject his offer. What is the door to the kingdom of heaven? When Jacob fled from his brother Essau, who wanted to kill him for stealing his birthright (Genesis 27:41), Jacob sought refuge in the wilderness. There God pursued him and gave him a vision that both changed his life and the life of his people. As Jacob slept on a star-lit hillside God showed him a great ladder or stairway that extended from earth to heaven. This stairway was filled with a multitude of angels ascending and descending before the throne of God. 

An open door to the throne of God

God opened heaven to Jacob, not only to give him a place of refuge and peace, but to offer him the blessing of dwelling in intimate friendship with the living God. God spoke to Jacob and renewed the promises which he had made to his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac, and now to Jacob and his descendants. God promised not only to bless and protect Jacob, but to make him and his descendants a blessing to all the nations as well. When Jacob awoke he exclaimed: "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven" (Genesis 28:17). God opened a door for Jacob that brought him and his people into a new relationship with the living God.

Jesus is the door to God's kingdom

Jesus proclaimed to his disciples that he came to fulfill the prophetic dream of Jacob in his very own person: "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). Jesus proclaimed that he is the door (John 10:8-9) and the way (John 14:6) that makes it possible for us to access heaven and God's very throne. But Jesus woefully warned the religious leaders and successors of Jacob that they were shutting the door of God's kingdom not only on themselves but on others as well. The word woe expresses sorrowful pity as well as grief and sadness.Why did Jesus lament and issue such a stern rebuke? 

Don't be misled by wrong-headed teachers

Jesus was angry with the religious leaders because they failed to listen to God's word and they misled the people they were supposed to teach and lead in the ways of God. They were blindly leading people to "pharisaism"- to their own ideas, rules, and practices which God did not intend or require - rather than to God's intention and way of life for his people. Jesus also chastised them for their hypocrisy - a hypocrite is an actor or impostor who says one thing but does the opposite. Jesus gave some examples to show how misguided they were in their thinking and practices. 

In their zeal to win converts, the religious leaders required unnecessary and burdensome rules and practices which obscured the more important matters of religion, such as love of God and love of neighbor. And at the same time they made exceptions for themselves by devising clever ways to evade binding oaths and solemn promises which they had made to God. The Jews treated an oath made to God as a binding obligation that must not be broken under any circumstance, but the Pharisees found clever ways to evade their obligations when inconvenience got in the way. They forgot that God hears every word we utter (especially our oaths and promises) and he sees the intentions of our heart even before we speak or act.

God's ways and thoughts are different from ours

The scribes and Pharisees preferred their idea of religion to God's idea. They failed to lead others to God because they listened to their own ideas of what is true religion and they failed to understand the true meaning and intention of God's word. Through their own pride and prejudice they blindly shut the door of their own hearts and minds to the truth of God's kingdom.

The prophets of the Old Testament had repeatedly warned God's people to seek the Lord and to put aside their own thoughts and ideas of religion in order to hear and understand God's mind and intentions for his people. The prophet Isaiah wrote,

"Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts... For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:6-9).

Seek God's kingdom first

How can we shut the door of God's kingdom in our own personal lives? We close it through stubborn pride, disobedience, and ignorance. Do you submit your mind to God's word or do you cling to your own thoughts and ideas of what is right, true, and good for you? Do you allow the world's way of thinking to form the way you think, act, and speak - or do you allow God's word of truth to form the way you think, act, and speak? Do you ignore God's word through indifference or lack of reflection on his word? 

The Lord Jesus wants to speak to us each and every day - to help us grow in our knowledge and understanding of his love and truth. The Lord is knocking at the door of your heart - are you receptive and ready to listen to his voice as he speaks through his life-giving Word? God's kingdom is always present to those who seek him with a humble mind and a willing heart. The Lord invites us to pray daily, "May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

"Lord Jesus, your word is life for me. May I never shut the door to your heavenly kingdom through my stubborn pride or disbelief. Help me to listen to your voice attentively and to conform my life more fully to your word."

source: Kairos-EME, Don's Daily Email

Sweet Divine Infant Jesus, I Ask Thee, I Seek Thee, and I Knock at Thy Door, Come and Grant me Your Miraculous Healing Today

Dear Sweet Divine Infant Jesus, I pray for a miraculous favour from You that to heal me from my financial woes. I trust and believe that by You miraculous words, I will be healed from my financial adversities soon, I need Your miraculous help urgently. O Jesus, Who has said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened," through the intercession of Mary, Your Most Holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be granted. Therefore, Infant Jesus, I am not asking to be rich but only to be able to attain the amount sufficient to get through these pressing times, to be able to change myself and lead a normal debt free moderate life. 

Infant JESUS, I TRUST in You. AMEN

Dear Sweet Divine Infant Jesus, I pray for a miraculous favour from You that to heal me from my financial woes. I trust and believe that by You miraculous words, I will be healed from my financial adversities soon, I need Your miraculous help urgently. O Jesus, Who has said, "All that you ask of the Father in My Name, He will grant you," through the intercession of Mary Your Most Holy Mother, I humbly and urgently ask your Father in your name that my prayer will be granted. Therefore Infant Jesus, I am not asking to be rich but only to be able to attain the amount sufficient to get through these pressing times, to be able to change myself and lead a normal debt free moderate life.

Infant JESUS, I TRUST in You. AMEN

Dear Sweet Divine Infant Jesus, I pray for a miraculous favour from You that to heal me from my financial woes. I trust and believe that by You miraculous words, I will be healed from my financial adversities soon, I need Your miraculous help urgently. O Jesus, Who has said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away but My word shall not pass away," through the intercession of Mary Your Most Holy Mother, I feel confident that my prayer will be granted. Therefore I am not asking to be rich but only to be able to attain the amount sufficient to get through these pressing times, to be able to change myself and lead a normal debt free moderate life.

Infant JESUS, I TRUST in You. AMEN

Our Father, Who art in heaven

Hallowed be Thy Name;

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil. 

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death. 

Amen.

Glory be to the Father,

and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be,

world without end. 

Amen.