A Closed Door - November 3, 2009

Good Tuesday morning! The clock says it's a little early, but my mind says it's okay. Let's vote out the time changes! What do you think? Is it time for a local grassroots political effort to stop the time change nonsense? :-) What does the Bible say about this? Hmm, now there's a thought. Often we want to take off in one direction or another; we are ready to go, but we forget to check with God. We get up and make our plans for tomorrow, the plans for today were made yesterday or last week, and off we go. Jesus commanded us to only worry about today, and to make plans if God is willing. The point he made is that only God knows what will happen tomorrow. Paul planned to go to a city on one of his missionary journeys, but the Holy Spirit would not allow them to go. One might wonder how he knew this, the Bible doesn't tell us.

You might imagine Paul and his companions planning their trip; perhaps Paul was flush with cash at that time and tried to hire a cart or donkeys to ride on their trip. More than likely, they had to walk, but in either case they may have found a barricade on the road. We see them all the time, perhaps he ran into the Roman version of "Road Closed". The Holy Spirit might have told Paul in a dream or even with a whisper in the ear. We don't know, but somehow Paul had clear knowledge that he was not to go on that particular trip. He changed his plans to go where God wanted him to go.

In our lives we often use the metaphor of doors. We use the saying, "where God closes one door, He opens another." Paul might have literally run into the same thing. The gate to the city he planned to travel to was stuck closed, or locked by order of the governor. He had to take a different gate and road. We might face the same thing in our lives. It seems that no matter how hard we push against a particular door in our career or ministry the door just will not open. We may not be listening to the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit that tells us not to go there or to go to a different door, and so God overrules us by keeping the door closed.

A closed door in our lives is not an opportunity lost, but is simply a chance to try another door and find a new opportunity!

Praise God for closed doors!

Bucky