You’ve heard the saying, “When God closes a door, he opens a window.” This past week, God closed a door that in my mind I had started to step through. I will be honest, it hurt a little. There was disappointment and then doubt. It wasn’t that I wanted this with all my heart. It was more that I let myself believe that it was mine. So, in his infinite wisdom, the Lord, said No. Proverbs 19:21, “Many plans are in a man’s heart. But the counsel of the Lord will stand.”

What is the counsel of the Lord? Has the Lord ever told you no, and you instantly became a screaming toddler, demanding what he took away from you? I have! Many years ago, I applied for a job at my company. It was a promotion and it was given to someone else; someone I had trained. I was angry! In my heart, I was angry at God.  After a while, my circumstances changed, and I ended up leaving that company and moving into a completely different field. I am so glad that I didn’t get that job! God’s wisdom, his plan, was for something much greater than I had in my mind.

The prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, The Lords Prayer, says, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. I want God’s will to rule in my life. But sometimes it is hard to define what that will is. How do I know what his will is for my life? So many questions when we face obstacles and difficult decisions. But, through everything that I have experienced in my life, I have learned one thing. The Lord will bring me through, and he will use everything for his good.

Yesterday, I was cleaning out our upstairs loft and closet and I found a letter my dad had written me in October 1989. I immediately sat down and read that letter. My dad passed away in January 1991 in a drunken stupor, alone in a hotel room in Tennessee. The demons that tormented him all his life, finally got the better of him. My dad was truly two people, one when he was sober and one when he was immersed in addiction. But this letter, is a treasure from him. “ I am overcome anew at how undeservedly I received this happiness of your life touching mine and each day I am deeply moved at what a hard school God has led you through because my life was forced on you.” “I hope you will find much joy in this life, and that God will reveal his Son to you in even a far greater way than I have known him.” Wow! My dad was the smartest person I have ever known and knew God in such a deep way. I truly believe that his potential was so great that Satan gripped him fiercely to keep him as ineffective as possible! But God had other plans! God’s will would not be denied! So, in my dad’s battle, I grew to know the Lord. And I am so deeply touched that my dad prayed for me and his desire was that I would know God even more intimately than he. I would never have considered such a thing, because I do not hold a fraction of his intellect.

Yet, as we seek to find God’s will, isn’t that the whole point? We seek God for his guidance and wisdom and in so, he reveals himself to us. Each one of us has this opportunity; the chance to know him. I pray that God will use my experiences and challenges to not only bring me closer to him but to share his light and love with others. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7b)