Closed Door Christians

They’re everywhere.  We are all guilty of being closed door Christians at some point in our lives.  Some are just slower to come around than others.  Unfortunately, some never do.  What is a closed door Christian?  Well let’s examine it…

My definition of a closed door Christian is one who appears to be Godly on the outside in every way, they’re appearance, they’re speech, they’re works, they’re church attendance, etc…  However, once they get home and close the doors, they beat their spouse and/or kids, or maybe they sneak pornography on their computer or phone.  Or maybe they have an alcohol problem they are hiding from the outside world.  They might act differently at work where none of their co-workers attend their church.  They talk any old way they want with bad language and gestures.  There can be literal doors closing in their lives, or psychological doors that they close in their minds to hide whatever unconfessed sin that is ruling their lives. 

To a certain point, we are all guilty of this given the fact that we are sinners.  However, at what point does it start to interfere with your relationship with God?  We might hide the darkest of secrets from each other, but we can’t hide anything from God.  We cannot have a fulfilling relationship with the Lord if we have all these doors closed.  We have to let God have ALL of us, not just different parts of us. 

There are two ways we sin.  Consciously and subconsciously.  Let’s talk about the latter first.  Subconcious sins, or bad habits as we call them, can complicate our relationship with God just as badly as when we consciously sin.  We tend to have the most difficult time in this area when we are either 1, early in our walk with the Lord, or 2, when we are just getting back on track with our walk with the Lord.  Bad habits are hard to break, especially when we don’t yet let God have our entire heart.  If we keep those doors closed, the longer it will take to break those habits.  If we submit fully, then God takes care of those habits for us.   One thing is for certain, we cannot take care of our habits all by ourselves.  We have already proven that we are weak and cave in to whatever habits we are chained to.  This is where God comes in.  He can break us loose from whatever vices we have that keep us from being completely committed to Him.  We just have to let Him. 

To me, conscious sins are more troubling.  We know it’s wrong.  We don’t necessarily have a bad habit at the sin, we just willingly disobey God and don’t care about the consequences, all the while claiming to be a Christian in the process.  This is especially dangerous.  This is basically daring God to do something about it, which trust me, He will do.  We shouldn’t play games with God.  We should fear God, which is to say we should respect Him.  A person might get away with this for awhile, but somewhere down the line, you or someone close to you will pay for that kind of disrespect.  I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want is for someone else to have to pay for my mistake. 

The best thing we can do is to make things right with the Lord.  We then need to seek Him daily, multiple times a day in prayer, devotionals, and have the most positive and motivational thoughts we can have that glorify God.  All day long…. everyday.  Eventually, ultimately, we will see those bad habits slip away and/or we will see that our willingness to sin will diminish. 

Think of God, all day long….. everyday.  Ya’ll try it and see what happens.. it is my prayer that you will have success and become a Christian with an Open Door Policy.