Leave it Closed
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith 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
KJV)
Have you ever tried to open a door when God closed it? I have and if you think
about it and are honest you have too. Yesterday I spent most of the day trying
to open a door that God had closed. He already had given me a better way to do
it, but I’m stubborn and I thought that I could figure out a way to do it my
way. Guess what! It didn’t work and it will never work because His ways are much
higher than our ways.
I am a perfectionist and I want everything in order and I don’t like changes. I
remember when I was in college and would be taking a speed test for typing, even
though I wasn’t looking at the typewriter I knew automatically I had made an
error and would erase it and start over. It’s no wonder that I didn’t make good
grades on my speed tests in typing class. In my word processing classes if I
made just one error I would delete everything even if I already had three or
four pages and start fresh.
My professors used to get so upset with me because I did that. However, I had
been conditioned by friends that I needed to do things the right way or I was
not contributing anything to the world. Looking back, I realize they were not
true friends or they would have been encouraging me instead of criticizing me.
Do you have closed doors in your life that you are trying to open? If God has
closed them, you will never be able to open them. Ask Him what He would have you
do instead because it is sure to be a better way and a more productive way to do
it.
One of the most important doors He has closed to those who claim to be
Christians is associating with the crowds we used to run with before we were
saved. When we make a commitment to Jesus that involves letting go of bad
habits, people who will lead us astray and all things that hurt Jesus. A pastor
friend of mine said in his sermon one time “I have been in the ministry for over
forty years and I’ve seen over and over again people who had a bad habit trying
to change the people they used to associate with before they were saved. It
didn’t work and it will never work because they will pull you down every time
especially if you are a baby Christian”.
We need to keep the doors closed on our past but we also need to open the doors
in our hearts wider so that Jesus can deposit more of His unconditional love and
compassion in them. Then, and only then will we be able to love others as He has
commanded us to love them. Loving others is not an option; it is a commandment
from Jesus. Do you love others as He has told you to love them?
Joanne Lowe
February 9, 2007
joannelowe8@bellsouth.net
http://joannelowe.blogspot.com/
http://www.heavenwardbound.com/