You sit with your heart half-bright, half-shadowed, don't you? The hope of this new door pulls one way, and the fear that it might not open pulls another. So you have come, asking the Lord to fling it wide if it is His will, and if it is not, to lead you to something better still. That little word "if", it trembles on the lip, yet it holds more solid ground under it than a thousand boasting certainties. You are not the man who strides into tomorrow announcing what he will do, where he will go, what he will gain, as though the hours were his servants and the years his bankers. No, you have laid this thing before the throne, and that alone tells me the Spirit has been teaching you.
You remember how a child, when the room grows dim and strange shapes gather, will reach up and slip his hand into his father's palm. He does not know the way to bed, but the father does. He does not need to name every turning or understand why this hall is darker than the last, it is enough that his hand is held. And so it is with you just now. What looks like a door may be a door. It may swing open with such readiness that you will almost laugh at the ease of it, and you will step into provision you did not earn and purpose you did not manufacture. The salary, the growth, the impact, these are not small things to the One who feeds the ravens and arrays the lily. He knows you need them. He does not grudge you them. If they lie behind that door, He will open it, and no man will shut it.
But if that door stays shut, if the latch does not lift, if the silence stretches, what then? Has He turned His face from you? No, child, He has turned His face toward something you cannot yet see. The jewel-cutter knows that one facet must be cut before another can catch the light, and the gem must be pressed to the wheel in a particular order. What feels to you like refusal may be His hand steadying you for a better thing that is not yet in view. The ship is not wrecked when it tacks away from the harbor it first aimed for; it is only making for deeper water, and the Pilot knows the channel. You have asked for something at least three times greater. But your God does not measure by arithmetic. He who gave His Son, His Son, mind you, for such as you and me, will He not with Him also freely give you all things? All things, in their season, in their right proportion, in the shape that fits the soul He is fashioning for His own crown.
The solid ground under you this hour is not the new position. It is not even the old one. It is the character of the God to whom you have prayed. The world spins and the markets shift and men make promises they cannot keep, but our God is not a weathercock. What He purposes, He does. When your power is gone, and every one of us comes to that place, where the rope-end slips through our fingers and the last candle gutters, that is when He rises to act. Not before, perhaps, but then. And until then, you are learning to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which is a harder lesson than any office will teach you, but a sweeter one by far.
So go ahead and knock on that door. Go with your hand in His. And if He opens it, praise Him with your whole heart. And if He leads you past it, down a corridor you did not expect, through a smaller gate that opens into a wider garden, bless Him then too, for He has kept His word in the keeping of you. The great Witness has been given to the people, not to the clever, not to the lucky, but to the people, to you. And He who did not spare His own Son will not be a miser with His providence.
---
Lord Jesus, our Leader and Commander, take this dear soul by the hand. You see the door and You see the heart. If this opportunity is from You, swing it wide, and let no adversary block the way. Provide beyond the asking, and let the work bear fruit that lasts. But if the path bends another way, grant quietness and confidence, and the deep-down knowledge that a closed door in Your will is a mercy, not a curse. Keep this one from fretting; keep them from rushing ahead of the cloud. Be their dwelling-place, their fixed point when all else sways, and let them know, as they rise and as they lie down, that they are Your jewel, bought with blood, and kept for glory. Amen.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. Bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
be-an-encourager.blogspot.com
