Open Doors

Reading from the Book of Revelation 3:7

⁷And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

We all need to hear from God each day about many different issues, but there are critical times in our lives that we especially need to know we are hearing clearly from Him. God wants to speak to us, but we have to be careful that we do not develop a closed mindset about how He wants to speak to us.

Sometimes God speaks to us by opening or closing a door to something we want to do. God can open doors of opportunity that no one can close, and He can also close doors that we simply cannot open. I pray that God will open only the doors through which He wants me to pass. I may sincerely think that something is right to do, when it may be wrong. Therefore I depend on God to close the doors I am trying to walk through if I am in fact making a mistake.

Sometimes the only way to discover God's will is to practice "stepping out and finding out." If I pray about a situation and do not feel sure about what I should do, I take a step of faith. God has shown me that trusting Him is like standing before the automatic door to a store. We can stand and look at the door all day, but it will not open unless we take a step forward.

There are times in life when we must take a step forward in order to find out what we should do. Some doors will never open unless we take a step towards them. At other times, we may take a step and find that God will not open the door. If we trust Him for guidance, and the door opens easily, we can trust that He is leading us.