Has God ever led you into a situation where you have to walk by faith? You know, where you walk up to a closed door, and have to wait to see if God is going to open it?
You’re sure the thing you want to happen is on the other side of that door, if God would just open it. Well, the day finally comes when God DOES open that door. Excitedly, you walk through it, just to bump into another closed door right in front of you…and that continues to happen over and over again. You keep hoping the next door gives you that thing you really desire…but God keeps telling you to trust Him.
The day then comes where you realize, “Wait, I thought God would give me what I wanted as long as I patiently endure the opening of these doors, but what if He never gives me my heart’s desire?!?
What if He plans to take me through all these doors just to open the final door and it says, ‘No’?” You start to panic, “Well, I was willing to wait on God’s timing as long as He eventually gave me what I wanted, but maybe I should reconsider this if God may not give me what I desire. This walking through doors is a complete waste of time if the outcome is not what I want to see happen!”
The devil tells you, “Give up!” You decide you would rather “protect” yourself from what’s to come, whether that be the loss of a job, a broken heart, the death of a loved one, and the list could go on and on. So, you decide to pray and make sure God really, truly desires you to continue down this path. He’s a good God, right? Why would He want you to be hurt? “God, I know you haven’t told me what Your will is in this situation, but just in case it’s “No”, I would like to protect myself from the hurt. Do You really want me to continue down this path?”
God assures you He wants you to continue down the path He placed you on…yes, the one with all the closed doors. In between the doors, God tries you and tests you in ways you never thought possible. However, each door you walk through, you look back at the time between the previous doors and see how God provided for you every step of the way. You see the leaps and bounds in your faith you never thought possible.
Your faith and trust in the Lord begins to grow.
However, you finally get to a point where you think, “This is taking too long…maybe I’ll try walking this direction. That could be where God wants me to ultimately end up!” Well, it doesn’t take long for God to put you right back in front of the doors. Not long after, you start trying to plan again, “If God didn’t want me to go that direction, it must be that He wants me to go the opposite direction!” Again, you don’t take many steps before God puts you right back in front of those doors. He wants you to trust Him! It’s not yet His timing for you to know His final answer at this point.
Then you think, “You know, I’ve been on this path for quite a while, maybe it’s God’s will for me to give up.” He quickly makes it known; however, that it’s His will you continue going. Many days you have no clue at all where you’re going, just that you’re currently where God wants you to be.
You know, all this reminds me so much of Abraham and Sarah. God told Abram (Abraham) He would lead him to a new country but didn’t tell him where He was going. Abram had to walk by faith. God then told Abram he would have a son.
That promise wasn’t fulfilled immediately, though, it took years!
Abram and Sarai (Sarah) had to continue to walk by faith. Sarai then had what I’m sure she thought was a great idea! While I’m paraphrasing here, Sarai basically said, “God’s taking too long, I need to take matters into my own hands and ‘help Him out’.” That didn’t work out too well, though, and it doesn’t work well when *we* try to “help God out” either. Mary had to trust the angel of the Lord which said she would have a baby, and the Messiah at that, even though she had not known a man. She also had to endure being thought of as unfaithful by Joseph until the angel of the Lord revealed God’s plan to Joseph, as well.
God’s plan is best, and often, He takes us down detours we see no purpose for on the way to where He wants us to go.
Everything He does in our lives has a purpose, though!
He teaches us lessons along the way and, many times, uses what we call “detours” to make us more like Him!
