THE DOOR

Story By: Lisa Petrarca

I sat, locked away, wondering how to open the door. A prisoner behind a wooden fortress. Each day spent frantically searching for a way out. By nightfall, completely worn out. I knew that if I could open the door, everything would be better in my life. All the anger, hurt and frustration would be gone. On the other side, I would find the answer, happiness would finally be a part of me. Pounding, pushing hitting only produced deep rivets in the wood, but it wouldn't give.

My sins had trapped me here. My past haunting me, searching to find freedom on the other side. My mental focus on that door. Years past, the days spent consumed with the door, now deeply scarred, chunks ripped out, exposing lighter wood and splinters. My hands torn and bloody, my soul still longing to be free. Breathless and exhausted, the time spent looking at my captor, my burden, had taken its toll.

No more! Throwing myself to the floor, tightly curled in a fetal position, crying from the pit of my stomach, gasping for air, unable to look at that door. I cried out to God to save me. This was the first time I had thought of anything but the door. I cried over and over, "Please release me from this prison. I have tried to get out...I have nothing left, I give up, I can't look at it for another minute."

The Lord replied, "My child, that door represents your sin. You have focused on it for far too long, keeping you away from all that I have for you. Your past has held you prisoner. It has kept you away from Me. You were too blinded by sin to see the other door. My door...which I provided for you, through my only begotten son, Jesus Christ. He provided the key. Through His sacrifice you no longer need to look at the door of your sins. You are forgiven, My door is open...YOU ARE FREE."

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." Matthew 7:7,8

Don't continue to let your sin keep you away from a relationship with your Heavenly Father. Stop spending so much time focusing on it and ask the Lord to set you free!