I used to only pray for open doors. God, open the doors of opportunity for me to walk in. Eventually, I started believing every open door was MY door and I wandered my way right into some unholy messes.
Do you realize Satan can open doors too? Do you understand just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Just because the opportunity is in front of you does not mean it’s God’s best for you.
Now, I pray for God to close doors just as much as he opens doors. I’m so grateful for the doors God closes so I’m kept out of the rooms I simply don’t belong in. Closed doors are a gracious gift from a loving God who sees where it leads and knows what isn’t right, what isn’t good, what isn’t fruitful, and what isn’t in his preferred future.
Did you know God has a PREFERRED FUTURE for you? The one who sees the future, the one who holds the future, has a preference for you. And if you will pursue the doors he has opened and stop trying to beat down the doors he has closed, you will walk in his preferred future.
But, you don’t have to. You will not be forced to walk in that preferred future. You can walk your own way into a future of destruction and disaster. You can walk your way into a future of unnecessary stress and overwhelm. You can walk your way into the plans the enemy of your soul has for you – plans of defeat and despair. Plans of a little life with no way out. YOU DON’T WANT THAT!
Lord, please open the doors to your best plans for my life, and please close the doors that do not lead to your preferred future for me. I trust the position of your doors. I trust them enough to walk through the ones you open, without hesitation – and walk right past the ones you have closed, without complaining.
Jesus tells John to write a letter to the church in Philadelphia. This is the 6th church and the 6th letter in the book of Revelation. If you’ve been following along in our study for the past 2 weeks, you likely notice a patterN in these letters from Jesus. Jesus identifies a specific quality of himself as a reminder to his people, he recognizes what they are doing right, then he corrects them in what they are doing wrong.
This letter to Philadelphia (not Pennsylvania but modern day Turkey) is different. Jesus has nothing negative to say to these people. They’re doing it right. There’s no correction! And what they are doing right is what we need to get right! Let’s look at this, because Jesus is speaking directly to us today.
Let’s begin in Revelation 3: 7 where Jesus first reveals a specific quality of himself to his people. “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. This is the message from the one who is holy and true, the one who has the key of David. What he opens, no one can close; and what he closes, no one can open.”
Jesus says, I ALONE HOLD THE KEY. If I open it, no one can close it. If I close it, no one can open it. And because Jesus is holy and true, we can trust he knows which doors should be opened and which doors should be closed.
When we really trust Jesus, we can walk through his opened doors with confidence. We don’t have to second-guess. We don’t have to stress. Walk right in and know this is leading to his preferred future for you.
But that also means when we really trust Jesus, we can face a closed door and not question. We don’t have to stand there wondering. We don’t have to grow discouraged. And we’re certainly not supposed to stand there complaining. Hey, the longer you stand disappointed over that closed door, the more delayed you are in walking through the open door he prefers for you.
Are you going to trust him or not?
Trust means faith to confidently walk through open doors, and the same faith to confidently walk right on by the closed ones.