Daily Devotion

“My work here is like repeatedly knocking on a heavy, tightly closed stone door in the dead of night. Although there's no echo from inside, and only cold air seeps through the cracks, I know that as long as I keep knocking, this door will never be closed forever. My mission is not to break down the door, but to stand guard at the door until God himself pulls the bolt.”

Morrison · Annual Report to the London Missionary Society (LMS)

Scripture

Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Reflection

Morrison's parable of the "Stone Door" is the most profound commentary on the promise of "knocking." We often mistakenly believe that the door should open immediately after we "knock," neglecting the process of persistent knocking in the "deep night" and "cold air." Morrison understood that the act of knocking belongs to man, but the authority to open the door belongs to God. In the seemingly monotonous ministry with no response, this persistence is not out of superstition about one's own strength, but stems from an absolute certainty of the faithfulness of the "Promiser." Reflecting on our lives, do we want to give up on that "heavy stone door" because we don't see a change in the short term? True faith is believing that God's hand is on the other side of the door even before the cold stone wall. We are called not to "break down the door" to perform meritorious deeds, but to wait in the darkness until God's timing accomplishes that miraculous opening.