When One Door Shuts...

When he opens a door, no one can close it. And when he closes it, no one can open it. 8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. - (Revelation 3: 7-8)

 Everyone who asks will receive. The one who searches will find, and for the one who knocks, the door will be opened. - (Matthew 7:8)

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” - Alexander Graham Bell

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When we trust God, He will always set before you opportunities. Some opportunities we will pass by in fear, others we will take and become the happiest we have ever been. God, however, also sets before us choices. Sometime the open door is a test. Sometimes the open door is a chance to go back to the old and familiar, to be with that one person again, or to go back to an old job you left awhile back. The choice we make is our opportunity. If we pass by the old to progress to the new, if we stay out of comfort, then we could gain new knowledge and possibly change lives. If we pass by the old, we could also never discuss with that person their beliefs and show them to Christ. What then do we do when an opportunity/ choice presents itself? I think I have a check list:

1. Go to God First - when you run to God, when you seek first the kingdom of heaven, life will present itself to you. God knows your past, present, and future deeds. He would not put a door in front of you that, with His help, you could not get back on the straight and narrow path. When He puts that opportunity in front of you, no one can close it but Him! God knows we cannot do it without Him as we have little strength. Yet, as long as we live for Him, He will keep us safe.
2. Ask For The Right Answer - God tells us that He wants us to go to Him. He wants us to ask Him what to do when we are stuck. He also, however, wants us to know what to do in the first place. Nevertheless, He will not strike you down dead if you ask for His help. In fact, He welcomes it. If you really want to know the right answer, it will present itself to you. If you really want a situation to happen to glorify God, and you ask and "knock on the door" it will be opened and it will happen. If you want to plant a church, but are stuck in what the first step is, ask God! If you want to go on a missions trip or help a next door neighbor, ask God! He will provide what you need to make it happen to glorify Him. If you want it only to glorify yourself, He may give it to you, just not in your time. (Have you ever noticed that when you feel you really need to find something and you search for it you never find it. It is only when you stop looking that you receive it. This is the same thought process.)
3. Stop Wishing -  When a door that we have either chosen to pass through or pass by closes, we should not regret that decision. We have learned something from that opportunity or choice that we needed to learn in order to continue forward in life. When we look on that past opportunity, that past choice that we wish we could change, and that is all we do, what do we really have in life? Our life then becomes a waste as all we do is sit around wishing that this or that could have happened instead. This is not trusting in God, it is a distrust in Him. I said in my past blog that I have had regret in life and that I wouldn't want to change them because they made me who I am. I will say that if all I did was sit and wish for this and that to have happened, I would not have started the previous blog that brought me closer to God. I would not have spoken to the person that showed me where my fault was. I would not have been kind or considerate to the people that most people think are weird and awkward. Those people have helped me more than "normal" people ever could. 
4. Stop Being Normal - Matthew 7: 13-14 tells us that wide is the path that many will go through. It tells us that it will lead to destruction. This wide path is normalcy. Normalcy is being broke, divorced, drunken, sad, depressed, regretful, helpless, gossipers, narcissistic, and just plan being broken. It also tells us, however, that few will go through the straight and narrow gate that leads to life. Be weird!!! When family is strong, peer-pressure is low; when family is weak, peer-pressure is strong. A family that decides that a family dinner is more important than eating in front of the t.v., a family who decides that a game night is more important than spending money on a four-person family movie night, a family who decides that cooking at home is the best way to save and to become closer will have stronger values. When a college student doesn't do the "normal" thing of partying and drinking every night, when a person would rather read the Bible than watch porno, when a person becomes weird in a God sort of way, weird become better. It is being holy as "holy" means set apart, being different. Be holy as God is holy and be different. Yes you will be criticized. Yes, you will be the butt of all jokes. Yes, you will be persecuted. Yes, you will feel like crap many times. But, work through it as God said that the world will only hate us if we are not of the world. Stop being normal and be weird!!!!

When these four things are accomplished, I have no doubt that you will know the right action to take and that you will take it. To go to God first and ask for the right answer to present itself in His time, to stop wishing for the what if's and could have been's and look at the situation that is occurring now, and to be weird will tell you the best course of action to take. No matter how much they tease you or hurt you, do what you know is right! Stop trying to please everyone as you cannot please everyone, but  you can please God.