Contact Magazine - Leading Article

Fling wide the gates

I’ve just been reading Psalm 24 and it has lifted my heart and spirit.

It’s not that I was down in the dumps, and needed ‘bucking up’, but simply reading this Psalm with it’s emphasis on the awesome majesty and holiness of God and it’s encouragement to us to ‘fling wide the gates and let the King of glory come in’, has just filled my heart with gladness!

Don’t get me wrong, this Psalm contains a very real challenge. It reminds us that those who would ‘ascend the hill of the Lord’ or draw near to God should do so having, or at least, desiring purity of thought, deed and word, and focussed on the worship of the Living God.

That’s a tough challenge, but we are also reminded that God is at work helping us to desire and achieve these very things! And that those who ‘fling wide the gates’ of their hearts will find that none other than ‘the king of glory will enter in’. This declaration/promise is amazing and it is stated twice!

Perhaps, like me, you did that many years ago? Don’t get out of the habit of opening the Bible and allowing it to speak to you. Perhaps you did it only recently? Try to establish a daily routine of opening God’s Word in order to be fed and challenged. Why not join a small group and share fellowship with and encouragement from others.

Perhaps you have never ‘flung wide the gates’ of your heart and life so that the King of glory might enter in. It’s never too late. Let February be the month and 2012 the year when you do, and then see what God, the King of Glory, can do with a life surrendered to Him!

Bill Forster.

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