On Discovering the Door With Your Name On It

How we love to pray for open doors.

We like those celestial answers our way ... kind of like a fast food drive-through.

Easy.  Quick.  No muss, no fuss.

Opportunities, prayers, wishes, hopes, dreams ... whatever you want to call them, we can find ourselves becoming desperately laser focused on receiving the specific desire of our hearts.

But what if doors never seem to swing open wide or we're becoming more disappointed and frantic as we wearily rattle the reluctant doorknob or continually kick at the splintered wood?

What if we're not sure what God wants for us ... or it feels like the heavens are closed to the cries of our frustrated, saddened, or anxious hearts?

This may sound odd, but I've learned to pray for the closed door.

Huh?

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Yep, I've spent far too much time along the way trying to finagle specific answers to questions that have no quick fixes or are too lofty for me to attain.

But a closed door that doesn't budge no matter what I do?

That reality I can fathom.

Our faith in Christ morphs and stretches as we fully trust Him with what He's telling us ... especially if it's news we have no interest in hearing.  Like, 'No, this door is not going to open for you.  But walk ahead with joyful expectation because I've got one right down the hall with your name on it.'

As we indulge in less hand wringing, throw all our preconceived agendas to the wind, faithfully pray for His will to be done, and become truly willing to listen up, the Sacred Doorkeeper stills our rattled exhaustion and whispers direction to our eager-to-discern hearts and minds.

Because Isaiah 30:21 is oh so true ... 'Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk ye in it.'


Shelly Miller said it beautifully in a recent Sabbath Society newsletter.  'The more I submit my desires to Jesus while letting go of outcomes, the more He seems to answer the deepest longings of my soul.  His abundance always surpasses my imagination and fulfills the prayers I didn't even know I needed to pray.'


if this post has somehow resonated,

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