We build walls in our lives to protect us: walls around our country, down to walls around our heart.

Your heart is a fortress, a city surrounded by walls that protect it. Life is steady and flowing, moving within those walls.

These barriers are a necessary part of our life. It is not the walls we need to tear down, but I propose it’s the gates that we need to have opened much more regularly. Consider our physical heart. It is completely encased, yet there are valves that open and close, open and close, with every heartbeat. This keeps the blood moving with new oxygen that we have breathed in. It is carried throughout our entire body, because of our heartbeat, because of those valves opening and closing.

These valves are the gatekeepers of our physical heart. They guard it, and allow life to come in and go out.

It is only by these symbolic flexible gates in our own lives, that the ebb and flow of life continue. Through them we experience new things, and have fresh opportunities to grow beyond what we know and are comfortable with. Without opening that door, we cannot meet new people, or even step outside of ourselves to go visit a new city or even climb a nearby mountain.

If you haven’t yet, allow the King of Kings into your fortified heart!
He will rule justly, kindly, and even redeem and pay for your debt!
He will give you His armor, food from His table, provide protection, and invite you to sit in His presence.
He will share His wisdom with you.
He will call you His own child!

Now that is the King I am honored to have rule my kingdom, my fortress, my heart. I trust Him completely with my life, my family’s life, and our future. To serve this King, though it costs everything, is more fulfilling than any desire you could come up today!

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelation 3:20

“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”
John 10:9

Food for thought: Open your heart’s door today. Make room for the Lord to rule justly and graciously in your life.

Fun facts: The Castillo De San Marcos Fort in St. Augustine, Florida was built from 1672 – 1695. It is a masonry star fort with four bastions and a dry moat which could be flooded if necessary. The exterior walls are 33 feet high, 14 feet thick at the base, and are made of coquina, which is Spanish for small shells from Anastasia Island.

Additional info: For a different perspective on this topic, click here for Diana’s Diaries, Christ-centered devotionals.

Photo by: Kari Wiseman – Castillo De San Marcos, St Augustine