SCRIPTURE:
“Therefore Jesus said again, ‘Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’”
John 11:35
OBSERVATION:
Nowadays, we use the word “gatekeeping” as slang for someone withholding information or refusing to share something good.
Someone finds an amazing restaurant and won’t tell anybody where it is…gatekeeping. Someone has the secret to getting a great deal but refuses to share it…gatekeeping!
But Jesus is the great Gatekeeper, and His gatekeeping is completely different. Jesus isn’t standing at the gate trying to keep something good from us. He is standing at the gate protecting what is good for us.
He actually has a great desire to bring us into the pastures of His Kingdom. He wants us to experience life, freedom, safety, provision, and fellowship with Him. The gate isn’t there because Jesus is stingy; the gate is there because not every path leads to pasture. Some paths lead to destruction.
Jesus says, “I am the gate.” That means I don’t get to invent my own entrance into truth. I don’t get to decide that something is from God simply because it sounds spiritual, feels convincing, or comes from someone who speaks passionately. Jesus Himself is the standard.
APPLICATION:
I was listening to a lady who came up on my feed. And made a statement along the lines of, “Do you know that the Bible says we should not have cats as pets? It goes against God’s heart. Look at the book of Matthew and you’ll see how the Lord despises felines in the household.”
She said it with so much passion and conviction. Then she said, “That’s not even in the Bible!”
Her whole point was that people will confidently tell you things about God that God never actually said. Y’all, we have to read our Bibles. There are too many false allusions, half-truths, misquoted Scriptures, viral clips, confident opinions, and spiritual-sounding ideas floating around. Something can sound biblical without actually being biblical. Someone can speak with passion and still be wrong. Conviction in someone’s voice is not the same thing as confirmation in God’s Word.
That is why I need the Gatekeeper. Jesus protects me from accepting every voice that calls my name. The sheep know the Shepherd’s voice because they spend time listening to Him. The more familiar I become with Jesus through His Word, the easier it becomes to recognize when something doesn’t sound like Him.
I must ask myself: What voices have I allowed to become gates in my life?
Sometimes I can be too quick to receive something because I heard it in a sermon, saw it in a video, read it in a post, or heard someone say, “God told mr” But I don’t want to build my relationship with God on somebody else’s confidence. I want to know His voice for myself. And personally, I also need to remember that Jesus’ boundaries are not rejection. There will be moments when Jesus says no. There will be doors He doesn’t allow me to walk through, relationships He redirects, desires He asks me to surrender, and paths that look good to me that He doesn’t permit me to take.
In those moments, I don’t want to interpret His gatekeeping as God withholding something good from me. Maybe He’s protecting me. Jesus can see the pasture on one side of the gate and the danger on the other. So when I don’t understand why He has closed something off, I want to trust the Gatekeeper. If Jesus keeps me from something, I can trust His heart. If Jesus calls me into something, I can follow Him. And when the voices around me become loud and confusing, I can return to His Word and remember: Jesus is the gate.
He isn’t trying to keep life from me.
He came so that I could have life and have it to the full.
PRAYER:
Jesus, thank You for being my Gatekeeper. Thank You that Your boundaries are not meant to deprive me but to protect me and lead me into the goodness of Your Kingdom. Teach me to recognize Your voice above every other voice competing for my attention. Amen
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