Open and Closed Doors

Sometimes God leads us through open and closed doors in our lives. For example we say, “I’ll go to medical school if God opens the door,” or, “Pray that God would open a door to share Christ with my neighbor.” I believe we see this in Colossians 4:3 where Paul writes, “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ.”

But I came across 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 in my reading this week, also from Paul: “But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” It is simply fascinating to me that Paul sees that a door is ‘open’ which will lead to great opposition. I’m quite sure that if I had an opportunity to serve Christ, but there was a bomb threat, or picketers, or people who hated my message –I’m quite sure I would see that as a door firmly closed and securely locked. But with Paul, there is no conflict.

Is it possible that we trust too much in looking exclusively to the open and closed doors of our circumstances? How many doors do we see as closed which are really wide open? Or open which we see as firmly closed? It has been said that there are some open doors that we should not walk through, and some closed doors that we should break down.

Lord, grant me wisdom, based on the wisdom of your Word, to see which open doors you would have me shut and which you would have me run through; which you would have me open, and which you would have me bust down, for your glory alone.