The Keys of the Kingdom

The Keys of the Kingdom

"I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of
David; what he opens no one can shut and what he
shuts no one can open." Isaiah 22:22

In the years when I had more time for personal reading, one of the books that I read many times over was entitled The Keys of the Kingdom, written by A.J.Cronin. That was the late 70's when this story of Francis Chisholm, a Catholic missionary to China captured my imagination, in the days before I was a part of God's kingdom. The phrase "the keys of the kingdom" now has a whole new meaning to me, much more than the title to a favorite novel.

We all know the importance of keys having misplaced them, locked them in the car at the wrong time, or just plain old lost them. That happened to me this summer when I lost the master key to our school locks, the only copy of the key that opened all the book lockers. It was a real problem to say the least. And I'm a card-carrying member of AAA for the same reason, I seem to lock my keys in the car on a regular basis. This devotional really started on Sunday morning when John said to me "Dad, did you know there's a key taped to the inside of the pulpit?" It was the long-lost key to my office at church but it got me started thinking that the Lord has keys for our lives, that there are missing keys for each of our lives that will unlock doors to not only God's
blessing and favor, but also to His plans and purposes for our lives.

The key for one person might be a relationship. My summer jobs after high school and throughout college, from delivering mail for the Post Office to building sidewalks for the City of Rochester, were all the result of knowing the right person. For another person the key might be an attitude that the Lord has been working on. Paul and Silas sang praises in prison and at midnight, the darkest hour, and that was the key to the Lord opening prison doors for them. Elijah's determination to not leave Elisha was the key to him receiving a double portion of the Spirit and a ministry of miracles that still speaks to us today, 3,000 years later. And it is said about Jesus that the key to His life was his early morning prayer and devotional life, time spent with the Father.

God has a key for your life that He wants to reveal to you at this time. You job is to seek the Lord by faith and with a heart of expectation. God has the key, the right key, the perfect key for your life and He can't wait to take it off His key ring and pass it on to you. He holds the true "Keys of the Kingdom".

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church