WHEN OPPORTUNITY COMES KNOCKING…
Knock! Knock! Who’s there?
How will you ever know if you don’t answer?
Yet, if your life is anything like mine, sometimes those doors don’t have windows. Therefore, I can’t take a sneak peek at what lies ahead on the other side. Sometimes, all I have to go on are the prompts and God’s words. All I have is my trust and faith in Him. And despite the stubborn planner in me…
All I have is all I NEED. #Jesus
So let’s talk more about those doors of life...
Sometimes they open.
Sometimes they close.
But with each opening and each closing, there is an opportunity because…
God is God of opportunities. He opens doors for us all throughout our lives. But in an attempt to make room in our cluttered lives and minds, He will often close doors too. Therefore, it sometimes becomes an internal battle as to where we are looking. The question becomes whether we wait for the closed doors to open again or whether we move on.
🚪Are we looking back at the doors that closed or ahead to where God wants us to go?
🚪What is stopping us from breaking through ? What’s stopping us from stepping into the MORE God has for us?
Through it all, what I continue to learn is that my God’s ways are often not going to be understood by my understanding, and that in my surrendering time and time again I am learning to let go and be okay with that. I am learning to trust. I am learning: faith rising. Because…
God is in the journey.
He is the waiting.
He is in the opening of opportunity.
He is in the closing.
He is in every part of the journey.
And I want to be present in every part of the journey too.
We can often look back at the possibilities that were denied or even the ones that may still be there but leave us waiting and hanging. When we do that, our sense of living can even become placed on hold. We may not be as joyful and hopeful as those regrets, questions, and even resentments form and cloud our minds.
In the waiting, our sense of living can become compromised. We can start to put our lives on hold, waiting and waiting and waiting…
If only…
I’ll do that, once this happens…
I’ll do that, as soon as this stops or goes away…
The waiting can build us a resume of excuses or one of strength, patience, learning, trust and FAITH.
Wherever we are…WE ARE THERE FOR A REASON.
No matter whether the doors open or close, God is in control. He is calling us to walk in obedience to where He leads. He doesn’t want us to freeze our lives and wait on our own plans. He calls us to trust His. We don’t always know what’s on the other side. Heck, we don’t always know when the new door will appear. And sometimes, it’s right there before us, but we have no key.
No matter what, we can always turn to His words to provide.
We can trust.
We can walk in faith.
“for we walk by faith, not by sight.”
2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV
That was one of the very first scripture I learned as a teen. I learned it before I really read the Bible, minus what my classes at school required me to. It was a scripture I knew of before I ever really tried to let go. Well, I thought I tried to let go, but asked God to do it my way, which is quite the opposite. I begged God to open the doors I wanted opened like …
The time that I didn’t get into my first choice graduate school program for speech pathology and how it led me to my backup, teaching. It has been over 18 years since that denial letter I fought and sought answers on. I fought to pry open that door in any way I could. I met with and called advisors and people in charge. I mean… I had the grades. I had the transcript.
I had the plans.
At the time, I may have gotten no definitive answers. However, after almost 17 years of teaching, I do now. Speech was not part of my calling.
Teaching was.
Or what about all the relationships I prayed would work out and open up into more, but failed instead? I remember begging God to open doors that were not mine to walk through and arms that were not aligned with mine to hold. Most times I felt it too. I felt it was wrong. And still, I reluctantly begged because I sought to fill the void I had, an emptiness that only Jesus could fill and make whole.
Thankfully, our Father knows best.
All the closed doors and even the ones barred shut that left splinters on my gripping hands brought me to my husband at the age of 23 when I was probably the most broken I had ever been…
Then, there was when I was told I had to stop breastfeeding my daughter. I had severe postpartum anxiety as well as a hormonal imbalance. Doctor after doctor, family member after family member pleaded with me to stop. They reminded me time and time again that my mental and physical health were critical. I still clung to nursing. I held on until I could no longer do so. I reluctantly and unwillingly let go and listened. What I didn’t realize was that it was the beginning of a new door God was opening up, a new type of healing I could have never imagined. However, I had to stop trying to reopen the door He wanted closed for me. We often fight those closing doors like I had with breastfeeding and nursing, thinking that we must forcefully keep prying it open for the opportunities and blessings to pour in. “I planned to nurse for a year and I had to stick to my plans.”
But, that was my plan. It had flaws.
However, the true blessings often come when we finally let the door close. It is then that we can see the new doors, the new opportunities, often right before our eyes. There are true blessings in the shifting, in the closing, if we let closed doors be closed doors. A new level of faith was right before me and it truly meant a renewed life. I just needed to turn around and walk towards it instead of backwards.
Through it all, I started to let go, to heal, to trust, to praise, and to learn that walking in faith never had to do with my feelings and plans. It was all about surrender to the Lord’s. I am so grateful that God continues working even when we stubbornly hold on to our own.
He is faithful.
He is forgiving.
He is loving.
He truly knows what is best.
It’s easy to look back and see it now. My ways and plans are never better than His.
God opened new doors when I was trying so hard to keep the old ones open. I once built my plans with backup plans because I was afraid of failing.
But God never fails and He is the author of our story.
He writes every single chapter.
HE DESIGNS THE DOORS.
No matter how much we resist and fight it, and even beg Him to follow our ways,
His ways are better.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV)
Most of the time, my prayers were one sided. I was asking before I knew to walk, before I knew to listen, before I wanted to obey. Before I was willing to let go and let God, let alone step away from my gripping at the world. But much like a revolving door, I was spinning and landing in the same place time and time again until I gave it to God. Before I knew the outcome, I lifted it and gradually, the spinning slowed to a stop and I started to surrender.
His ways over mine.
But I still ask myself this question everyday?
Am I truly letting go?
That type-A planner in me may be grasping the door handles too tightly to receive what God has for me. I mean the reality is, God sees it all. I do not. Sometimes, closed doors are protecting us from something God sees and we may never even know about.
So I unclench my hands into a posture of receiving. I surrender. Time and time again. Here is the The Art of a Messy House Right Here and Right Now Challenge. Wherever we find ourselves today…
On the steps…
On this side…
On that side…
Or even the hallway …
Let’s praise Him every step of the way because He is working. (I am hearing Cade Thompson singing “every step of the way.”)
Let’s praise God for those closed doors of the past.
Let’s praise God for the ones before us.
Let’s praise Him for the waiting and in the waiting.
And let’s reflect on this: Are we looking back at the doors that closed or ahead to where God wants us to go?
Stepping, hoping and believing RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW.
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.”
(Revelation 3:20 NLT)
Dear God,
You are the greatest Planner of it all. You created it all. I pray today to keep my eyes focused on what you want me to be focused on. I pray today for forgiveness and to unclench my gripping hands. Lord, help me release my grasp if it is attached to anything that is not from You. I pray to step into the more You designed for me. I pray for the person reading this too. Thank you Lord for this moment, for this opportunity, for this waiting. Thank you for what you are growing and teaching through it all. You are working. You are faithful. And we praise You for your beautiful work right here and right now. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
