Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
This life is hard. Something in our inner being cries “fowl!” when life hurts, loss happens, and injustice strikes. This voice cries out for something better. This voice is the longing for an eternity of perfection called Heaven.
The tragedy of humanity is that we think that we can work our way to Heaven. Rather than follow the model of Jesus and pray for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven, we attempt to work hard to make Heaven ourselves. We muster our wills and our efforts to create rules and to control ourselves and others to etch out some square space of Heaven. We fail.
The words of Jesus above do not imply that we can do God’s will and find ourselves in Heaven one day. Jesus is not instructing that doing things earns grace or acceptance. In fact, Jesus is very clear that we can do many things in the name of Jesus and still have no idea who He is and fail to show Him who we are in vulnerable, honest relationship.
In the context of this verse, we see that Jesus instructs that if our lives are truly rooted in Him, then the fruit of our lives looks like obedience.* A life truly rooted in Him, drawing from Jesus as the source of our lives, is a relationship that connects us to Life itself. A life connected to God in this way knows who God is and opens the heart to allow Him to see every dark, hurt, broken, and needy place. A life connected to God through Jesus opens the doors to grace that allows us to enter Heaven.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to stop attempting to earn. Perhaps today God wants you to pause to examine the motives in your heart to do the things you do. Maybe God wants you to open your heart to Him to see inside. Maybe the things you do for Him have been robbing you of the chance to know Him more. Perhaps God would ask you to slow down and pause with Him.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.
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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 178–181, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 7:21-23) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).