When There is No Door

I often hear people say that God can shut doors that no man can open, and He can open doors that no man can shut.  What happens when there is no door?  You may be wondering what I mean by that.

I’m very dramatic.  During my teenage years, I was even more dramatic than I am now.  Slamming my door was the punctuation to my sentences.  When my parents didn’t go with my program, I emphasized my displeasure by slamming my door.  I was a master at the twirl and slam.

My dad quickly got tired of my scenes.  He thought outside of the box and came up with an ingenious solution.  He removed my bedroom door.  Voila!  No more door to slam.  New age parents may feel that it was violation of my rights.  Old school parents are wondering how I had hands to continue to slam doors…LOL!  Now my only option was to twirl and slam myself into my bed.  Which I did regularly.  But it was much quieter.

Not having a door had its challenges.  There was no such thing as a “private” conversation with my friends.  Not that I had anything to be private about.  We spent a lot of time prank calling people and gossiping about our friends.  It also meant that my brother could find me with no barriers.

I might have gone two years without a bedroom door.  By the time I was sixteen, the door was back on its hinges where it belonged.  I had learned to journal and express my disdain for parental input in healthier ways.

Sadly, many Christians are walking around today with a no-door mentality.  We let any and everybody come in and out of our lives.  There is not even a door there for God to open or shut.  We’ve removed the door from the hinges because we think it’s just getting in the way.  We’ve left ourselves open and vulnerable to attacks from the enemy.  We’ve left ourselves open to attacks from people who mean us no good.

I’m not suggesting that we remain closed to others, however I am suggesting that we allow God to decide who, and what, has access to us.  This is a hard concept for me personally.  Growing up in church, I believed the Christ-like thing was to always say yes.  To always serve.  To always give.

It’s only within the last two years that I have come to realize that I need to let God take the lead.  I mean… I knew it intellectually.  But it’s a completely different thing to actually walk that out in real life.  Every good thing is not necessarily good for you.  It’s only good if that’s the door that God opened.  And not just a door that people have opened for you to walk through.

What’s your door situation looking like?  Did you take it off the hinges so that just anyone can come in?  Did you deadbolt your door to keep God AND everybody else out?  Is your door unlocked but still closed to Jesus’ gentle knocking?  Is your door open, but you have your hand on the knob ready to close it at the first sign of trouble?  Or maybe your door is being opened and closed by the hand of God while you rest in the room that He has presently prepared for you.  #wepreach