One day he decided to invite the Lord to come and stay with him. When the Lord arrived, this young man offered him the very best room in the house upstairs at the end of the hall. “This room is yours, Jesus! Stay as long as you like and you can do whatever you want to in this room. Remember, Jesus, it is all yours.”
That evening after he had retired for the night there was a loud knocking at the front door. The young man put on his robe and went downstairs. When he opened the door, he found that the devil had sent three of his demons to attack the man. He quickly tried to close the door but one of the demons kept sticking his foot in.
Later, after a great struggle, he managed to slam the door shut and returned to his room exhausted. “Can you believe that” the man thought. “Jesus is upstairs in my very best room sleeping while I am down here battling demons. Oh, well, maybe he just didn’t hear.” He slept restlessly that night.
The next day things went along as normal and, being tired as he was, the man went to bed early that evening. Around midnight, there was such a terrible ruckus at the front door that the young man was sure that whatever it was would tear the door down. He stumbled down the stairs once again and opened the door to find that were dozens of demons now trying to get into his beautiful home.
For more than three hours he fought and struggled against the demons from hell and finally overtook them enough to shut the door against their attack. All energy seemed to fail him. He really didn’t understand this at all. “Why won’t the Lord come to my rescue? Why does he allow me to fight all by myself? I feel so alone.” Troubled, he found his way to the sofa and fell into a restless sleep.
The next morning, he decided to ask the Lord about the happenings of the last two evenings. Quietly he made his way to the elegant bedroom where he had left Jesus. “Jesus,” he called as he tapped at the door. “Lord, I don’t understand what is happening. For the last two nights I have had to fight the demons away from my door while you laid up here sleeping. Don’t you care about me? Did I not give you the very best room in the house?”
He could see tears building in Jesus’ eyes but continued, “I just don’t understand, I really thought that once I invited you in to live with me that you would take care of me, and I gave you the best room in my house and everything. What more can I do?” “My precious child,” Jesus spoke so softly. “I do love and care for you. I protect all that you have released into my care. But when you invited me to come here and stay, you took me to this lovely room and then you shut the door to the rest of your house.
I AM LORD OF THIS ROOM, BUT I AM NOT MASTER OF THIS HOUSE. I have protected this room and no demon may enter here.” The man was ashamed. ” Lord, please forgive me. Take all of my house, it is yours. I am so sorry that I never offered you all to begin with. I want you to have control of everything.” With this he flung open the bedroom door and knelt at Jesus’ feet. “Please forgive me Lord for being so selfish.” Jesus smiled and told him that he had already forgiven him and that he would take care of things from then on.
That night as the young man prepared for bed he thought, “I wonder if those demons will return.” But he knew that if they did Jesus would take care of it.
Sure enough, around midnight the frightening banging returned. The young man slipped out of his room in time to see Jesus going down the stairs. He watched in awe as Jesus swung open the door. Satan stood at the door this time demanding to be let in. “What do you want, Satan?” the Lord asked. The devil bowed low in the presence of the Lord, “So sorry, I seem to have gotten the wrong address.” And with that, He and the demons all ran away.
Jesus wants ALL of you and me, not just a part. Mark 12:30 tells us, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
The heart is the place of our love, devotion, and affection to the Lord. It implies a deep relationship. We may think more easily of loving God with our hearts, but loving him with our minds is crucial also. There is a great battlefield in our minds. Paul encourages us to be “transformed by the renewing of our mind” in Romans 12:2 and in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. We can be sincere and passionate for Jesus in our hearts but if we do not think according to God’s will, we can be defeated by the enemy.
Let us not confine him to a corner of our lives as the story implies but boldly give him our whole selves.
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“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” [Jeremiah 29:13]