Today, I saw a passage about closed doors and it really made me think… it really hit home with me because of some personal things I had been going through recently.
In the past few months, I had suddently and unexpectedly been met with a lot of closed doors, and I found myself questioning God as to why so much in my life was suddenly changing. I lost a best friend, my income dropped drastically, I was under a lot of stress about money and health issues. It seemed that everywhere I would turn, every door that had previously been open to me was closing. And I made things worse on myself because I wanted to keep one door open. I had the idea that I knew what I needed more than God knew. Oh how wrong I was!
I found myself lost, not knowing which way to go. Instead of looking for the open door and just trusting in God that He knew what He doing, I fell into a deep depression. Somewhere in that darkness, my soul cried out to God to wash it all away and to just cleanse my spirit. And He did, just like that… almost instantly. All He was waiting for was for me to ask Him. Funny now how simple it was. Where pain and hurt was, where sorrow was, happiness and joy live again.
Here’s the thing that we need to realize and remember. God opens doors in our lives. He closes doors in our lives. Those open and closed doors can be to things like a job, friends, financial success, a home, where we live, etc. Sometimes a door is all wrong for us.. or maybe it was right at one time for us and things changed and now it’s wrong for us. Sometimes where we live isn’t right for us anymore and God will close doors to move us. Sometimes a friend we have had for years changes so much and is no longer right for us and God will close the door to that friendship. Sometimes a boyfriend or girlfriend isn’t who God wants us to marry and He will close the door to the relationship and opens a door to meet the one He wants us to be with. God might cause us not to get a promotion on one job so that He can lead us to an even better job. He might cause an income to dry up on one work at home job in order to open the door to what He is wanting us to do.
He brings people into our lives for various lengths of time.. sometimes maybe for an hour, maybe four years, maybe a lifetime.. and then He closes the door to them forever. He might allow us to lose a home to bad weather in order to give us the new home He wants us to have where He wants us to have it. He might cause us to lose our job on one side of the country in order to open the door to a job on the opposite side of the coast. And He might even lead two people into a chatroom on AOL to find each other as friends and later marry, to finally be happy with someone (hey, it happened to me).
So the next time you find God closing doors on you, look for the open door. And know that when God closes doors in our lives, it will sometimes hurt. After all, we are human. But in all of this, there’s an open door, and everything will work out.
We need to learn to praise the Lord as much for a closed door as we do an open door. The reason God closes doors is because He has not prepared anything over there for us. If he didn’t close the wrong door, we would never find the right door.
God directs our path through the closing and opening of doors. Once a door closes, it forces you to change your course. Another door closes, it forces you to change your course again. Then, finally, you find the open door and you walk right into your blessing.
The Lord directs our paths through the opening and closing of doors, but often instead of praising him for the closed door (which keeps us out of trouble), we get upset because we didn’t get what we wanted and/or we think we know better than God what we need.
You have an ever-present help in the time of trouble that is always standing guard. Because He walks ahead of you. He can spot trouble down the road and set up a roadblock or detour accordingly. But through our lack of wisdom, we try to tear down the roadblocks or push aside the detour sign. Then the
minute we get into trouble, we start crying, “Lord, how could You have done this to me?” or “Lord, why did you let this happen to me?”We have got to realize that the closed door can be a blessing. Didn’t He say that no good thing would He withhold from them that love Him?
If you get terminated from your job, praise God for the new opportunities that will manifest themselves. It might be another job, it might be school.
If that man or woman won’t return your call, it might not be them, it might be the Lord setting up a roadblock (just let it go). Maybe they would only use you or hurt you, and God is sending you someone worthy of your love.
One time, a person had a bank they had been in business with for many years tell them “No!” to a $10,000 loan. The Lord put in their spirit to call another bank. That bank gave them $40,000 at a lower interest rate than the first bank was offering.
We can sometimes trap ourselves in doubt and discouragement through judging by appearances. Be grateful for the many times our Father has closed doors to us just to open them in the most unexpected places.
The Lord won’t always say in spoken words: “Go to the left, now to the right” …sometimes He will just close the doors that are wrong for you. Just follow Him.
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