Guide me in your truth and teach me,

For you are God my Savior,

And my hope is in you all day long.

Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,

For they are from of old.

Do not remember the sins of my youth

and my rebellious ways;

according to your love remember me,

for you, Lord, are good.

(Psalm 25:5-7, New International Version (NIV)

 

The Open Door

 

When my fiancĂ© was killed in a wreck, I was devastated and at a loss of what to do next. After asking God to open the right doors for my future, the opportunity for a job became available.  Even though most of my contemporaries had retired, I embarked on a wonderful adventure.

            While listening to this woman talk about how an open door led to such an amazing experience, I couldn’t help but compare it with another person who prayed the same prayer, but those doors led to disappointing results.

After praying for the right doors to open, the offer to become the Christian Educational Director in a church was accepted. Instead of feeling hopeful about the future while finishing the needed Master’s degree, moments of extreme anxiety and sadness became frequent. There was no thought the negative feelings were connected with the impending employment because the prayer for the right door to open had been prayed. Surely, the job offer wouldn’t have come if it hadn’t been right. The year and a half spent on that job was filled with confusion and anger, along with a debilitating sense of failure.

The woman in the first story knew the joy of success, while the other person experienced confusion, anger and failure. If each prayed for the right door to open, why wouldn’t both situations turn out positive?

The second story is my story, and basically what went wrong was that I was in the wrong place. Why? Going to seminary was not what God wanted. It was totally my thing.

Okay, I failed and disobeyed God. What do you do when you mess up? The following is what I would tell my younger self:

1.    Ask for forgiveness. Remember, God is a loving father. He understands better than we do why we go astray and is always ready to lead us to a better future.

2.    Stop, step back and take a deep breath.

3.    List what was positive as well as what was negative in the educational experience.

4.    Pray about what now needs to be done.

5.    Ask God to help you hear His voice in moving forward and to protect you from guidance that would not be of Him.

6.    Pray for the faith to be obedient to His leading.

Just a Thought: Many hands can open a door and invite us to walk through. The invitation may be from God, one wanting to do harm, or errant thinking. My experience has been when God opens a door, even if I don’t want to go through, a peace always follows.

A Prayer for the Reader

Oh Lord, right now everything seems so negative and I don’t know what to do next. Guide me in following Your path for my life and don’t let me be led astray by wrong voices or errant thinking. Thank you for Your forgiveness, mercy and grace, and help me to extend what You’ve freely given to me to others. In Jesus Name, Amen

 

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 New American Standard

Comments

  1. Lola McIntoshJuly 1, 2020 at 11:44 AM

    You touched the right part of my heart with this. You continue to amae and help me! Hugs

    ReplyDelete

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