When you run into a closed door after a season, or even many seasons, of praying and worshiping and praising and following Jesus, studying His Word, only to receive catastrophic losses, setback after setback, let-downs and failures.

Closed doors 🚪.

We tend to blame God for these kind of closed doors or at least we tend to believe that God must have closed that door or shut down that opportunity or ended that relationship or took that person away from me… because it wasn’t meant to be. It wasn’t in God’s plan. He didn’t want that for me.

We feel disappointed, frustrated, heartbroken, angry, exhausted, defeated.

Why has God closed this door? Why has He forsaken me?

After all that you have given in return for His answers to your prayers, His grace, His mercy, His love and faithfulness to His promises, He has failed you. He has turned away from you. He has let you down. He has left you behind.

You might believe that He has deliberately chosen not to answer your prayers for some reason.

You might believe that He has chosen to punish you even more than you already feel in your suffering.

You might believe He chooses to not grant you His mercy.

You might believe that He is withholding His love from you, that He does not care.

You might believe that He is not faithful to His promises.

You might find yourself lost in your faith, feeling without hope, faltering, sinking, and stuck in a place lower than low. You suffer. You’re in pain. You know He could take all that away and free you but for some reason He chooses not to do so.

Why?

Is it some kind of sick joke? The joke’s on you?

Closed doors 🚪.

Does God really close all doors? Or do we not close some doors ourselves? Do other people not close some doors on us? Does the enemy not close some doors on us?

Today I pray that God will help us be strong and wise and discerning enough to be able to spot the difference when a closed door has been shut by ourselves or by some other person or has been closed by The Enemy or has been closed by God.

When God closes doors He is preparing you. He has something better for you. He more in store. Sometimes it’s best to wait for His timing but to be prepared to accept what He has in store.