“The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.” Psalm 37:23…………
“Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.” Mt. 6:10………….
When a beloved friend and sister in the Lord shared with me how the Lord had “closed” a door of opportunity in her life, and how a woman had called her to tell her the opportunity was “closed”, confirming my friend’s desire to have the Lord close doors for her and open the ones He wanted open, I encouraged her and prayed for her about something I believe we all need to hear.
As much as many of Christ’s followers throw around the words “when God closes one door, He opens another,” and “Please God open the doors you want opened and close the ones you want closed,” I believe the Lord wants to take us to a place in which we SO LOVE HIM, and WE SO TRUST HIM, and we SO SEEK HIM, and we ARE SO FILLED WITH HIS SPIRIT, and we are SO DESIROUS TO LIVE FOR HIM, and we SO LISTEN FOR HIS VOICE, and we SO STUDY HIS WORD that we can SO DISCERN HIS VOICE, and we SO BELIEVE HE WILL ORDER OUR STEPS AND LEAD US FORWARD, that we don’t feel we need to ask Him to open and close doors to make His will obvious. We will simply be so cleaving to Him, and so in love with Him, and so wanting to please and honor and glorify Him, that we will know His will because we are so very close to Him and so very wanting to obey Him in our ever-growing love for Him.
The reality is that the Lord may open and close doors, but the devil opens and closes doors too, and the flesh also opens and closes doors. Just because a door is open doesn’t mean the Lord has opened it, and just because a door is closed doesn’t mean the Lord has closed it. If we look to our circumstances and the details of our lives and this world to determine God’s will for us, we may very well miss His will altogether and find ourselves completely or at least partly off track.
When we want to know God’s will, and we most assuredly should want to know His will, we should love Him, trust Him, spend time with Him, study His Word and seek Him, pray to Him and hear Him, seek godly counsel for Christ’s followers if and as He leads us, and trust the Lord by His Spirit to lead us forth so that we may follow Him and experience and enjoy His presence and live to bring glory to His precious forever name!