DILEMMA OF THE DOORS

IN OUR DAILY LIVES WE ARE CONSTANTLY ENCOUNTERING DOORS.

Some are open and we freely walk through presuming God is leading us. Other doors seem closed and we aren't sure what to do about them. If the door is locked, we could break the front door down and barge in—to our peril. Or we could look for another way to get in—a side door, back door or a window. However, that's dangerous—we may be mistaken as intruders.

There are entrances that don't have an actual material door, like the entry to a sheepfold in Jesus' analogy. It was simply an opening in a circle of stones or some sort of barrier across which the shepherd himself would lie across at night to prevent his sheep from sleep walking and snarling wolves from sneaking their way in to do harm. The shepherd was the door. Jesus claimed that He as the Good Shepherd is the door. (John 10:9) He warned against those who would attempt illegitimate ways of entry.

There are doors that confuse us because they seem to be swinging or rotating doors. We enter as if to walk through but as we walk we find ourselves rotating around and ending up outside again. Were we mistaken that the door was open?

Some doors are double and triple bolted and barred and guarded by security people.

These are No Trespassing doors. Let's not even approach them. Usually they are clearly marked so we don't have any excuse to mistake them.

Other doors are warm and friendly and we are entrusted with a key so that we can go in and out at will like family.

It isn't easy in our daily Christian walk to discern how best to deal with particular doors. Moreover, the Holy Spirit's guidance is unique to each of us and specific to situations. We need to pray for wisdom to recognize God's leading in any given circumstance. We like friendly doors where a WELCOME mat makes the decision for us. Rotating doors give us pause since we thought we were meant to go in but we find ourselves on the outside again. 
By all means we don't want to trespass anywhere God has clearly forbidden us. Let's not break a door down that God didn't mean for us to enter. The Lord did endow us with free will so we may actually attempt to do that sometime to our humiliation. However, there are God-guided occasions when even breaking through a roof is permissible. (Mark 2:4,5)

We are instructed to knock and ask and seek (Matthew 7:7) and not attempt forced entry. If God has planned for us to enter a certain door or escape through one, neither “four squads of soldiers, double chains, and guards in front of the door” (Acts 12:6) can keep a door from opening, nor can any man shut it. We are familiar with some doors in medical or office buildings that automatically open to us as we approach them with no effort on our part. God doesn't intend to confuse us with closed doors but delights in opening the right doors for us at the right time. (Rev. 3:8; Acts 14:27) In the case of the apostle Peter incarcerated in prison (Acts 12:10) an angelic event occurred whereby “an iron gate opened for them by itself.”

How about the doors we are encountering today? Would the bottom line of our dilemma of the doors be to simply trust and obey what we are instructed by Jesus Himself? “Knock....” That is, PRAY. Let's knock in faith trusting in the goodness of the Lord that He will give us enough light upon our path to know how to deal with a specific door. And then listen to God's reply to our knock and follow His directions.