To quote a line from an old song, “The ones that really love you walk up and down, outside your wall.”
Many a broken-hearted wife or sorrowful husband knows the truth of these words, many a parent as they watch their child go in a way that they would not desire them to go understands that line. If you are a born-again servant of the Most High God, you know it as well, perhaps better than most.
Family members you love dearly, friends you hold closely, those you have known for many years have all put that wall up against Christ, and you continue to walk up and down the length of it, searching for a way in, the door to their heart. The wall is stronger than steel, no battering ram can knock it down, it cannot be pulled or pushed over, and only the one behind it has the key to the only door.
“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matt. 22:39)
We meet these people every day, we know their end if they do not repent, and we know full well that our love for them, no matter how it is expressed, will not coerce them into opening that door. Behind the wall of pride, of self, of ambition they will remain, and only Christ can tear that wall down.
But He will not.
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20) Not pounding on it with great force, not breaking it down, but just simple, almost soft knocking.
But He will not knock forever.
Most people die behind that wall, the door disappears, and there is no hope of escaping that which they built themselves, the wall is impenetrable. The words of Christ, the truths of the Scriptures, love revealed from the Lord through us for them, that is the only hope for them, as it was for us.
The wall of stone protects their stony heart from what they have envisioned they should be, self-reliant, needful of none, able to stand on their own two feet. Good enough. The wall that separates them from Christ is self, and it is why we are commanded to die to self. It is in the deepest recesses of a person’s heart that we desire to tear that wall down, to step into the light, for Ecclesiastes 3:11 stands as a truth. “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”
How long will the Lord knock? I do not know. How long should you, how long should you continue in hope, how long should you continue walking up and down that wall they have built, and continue to build? Prayer, pleading with them, offering the truths of the Scriptures nearly every time you speak with them, living a life that glorifies the Living God in their sight. That is all we can do, it is their wall, only they can tear it down.
It is a most difficult thing, to give up on hope, when those you love and cherish are polite, but firm in their convictions, when they have made it clear and continue to do so that they have no desire to hear about the Savior, when they firmly rebuke all your efforts, when they continuously deny the One you love above all others. When do we stop walking up and down that wall, when do we fulfill Matthew 7:6, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”
I have done this, and in all honesty, I can say that it was not as violent a tug on my soul as I thought it would be, and for one reason, because there is One I love more.
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18)
When to stop and turn away, when to leave them behind that wall. When to stop waiting for them and continue following Christ. That is the question.
