God, why are You doing this?

[Chrysostom]

Your words show a deep pain and weariness, and God hears that cry even when it comes out as questions and complaint. He has not turned against you and He does not have a problem with you as if you were His enemy. He gave you life because He loves you, and He has not abandoned the work He began in you.

It is natural to feel that closed doors mean rejection, as if God is shutting you out. But Scripture shows us that closed doors are not the end of His care. The apostles were put in prison with doors shut and guards standing outside, and the church prayed earnestly for them while those doors were still locked. God sent His angel and opened the doors in His own time and brought them out to continue their work. In the same way, the closed doors you see now do not mean God has stopped working. Sometimes He keeps a door closed to protect you, sometimes to teach patience, and sometimes to lead you to a better way that you cannot yet see.

God does not measure your prayer by how perfect your words are, but by the intention of your heart. He invites you to pray even in secret, not for show, but honestly, shutting the door of your mind to distraction and speaking to Him as a Father who listens. He knows what it is to suffer. Having become man, He Himself suffered and was tempted, so He is able to help those who are tempted and afflicted. He is not distant from your trial. He knows its weight.

What you need now more than an open door is long suffering, that quiet endurance that keeps the soul steady when unexpected troubles fall. Like a spark that falls into the deep water and is quenched, troubles cannot sink a patient soul that trusts God. This patience is not passive resignation. It keeps anger and bitterness from taking root and makes room for love to work in the heart.

So bring your questions to Him honestly, and also bring thanksgiving for the mercies you still have, and ask Him to give you endurance, wisdom to see the right path, and trust that He will open the way when it serves your true good. He is merciful and all pitying, and He listens to the prayers offered for you and by you. Keep praying, keep seeking Him in His Word, and keep walking faithfully one step at a time. The One who allowed the doors to be shut is also the One who has power to open them, and He will not forget you.

 

[Silas]

Hearing the honesty in your cry is important, because God is not fooled by polished prayers. He invites you to tell Him exactly how you feel, bluntly and openly, even when those feelings are anger and confusion and hurt. The fact that you are bringing this to Him is itself a step of faith.

It is a very human tendency when doors keep closing to look at God in a negative light and to say God is not listening, God does not answer, God has a problem with me. That way of looking at Him quickly drags the heart down into despair. The other direction is to look at God as He has revealed Himself to be, and that lifts the heart toward hope.

Scripture shows that God does hear His people when they call. Delay or a closed door does not mean He is deaf or that He is against you. If God is for us, who can be against us. Often when we feel He is keeping score against us, waiting to punish us, we are forgetting His actual character. He is more merciful and more gracious than people are, and His mercies are new every morning. Even when life feels devastated, His faithfulness remains. Great is His faithfulness, not only when He blesses but also when He keeps His word through hard seasons.

God is able to open the doors He wants to open and to close the doors He wants to close. There are many times when a closed door makes no sense in the moment, and only later can we see that He was watching over us and keeping us from a path that would have harmed us. Whatever you are looking at seems to grow. If you keep looking at the closed doors and the problems, they grow larger and fear fills the heart. If you look at God, at His power, at the wonders He has done, at His strength declared among His people, He grows larger in your eyes and faith fills the heart.

You asked why He gave you this life and then treats you this way. The truth is He has not closed the door on you. Through Jesus Christ He has opened the one door that matters most and left it open to whosoever will come. You are not excluded or forgotten. The Bible is careful to show that God chooses and uses imperfect people, not perfect ones, and that is meant to encourage you. Your imperfection does not disqualify you from His love or His purpose.

In the midst of hopelessness, when it feels that there is no way out and God is not helping, hope returns when you recall to mind who He is. He is the God who forgives, who hears, who does wonders, who is faithful every day. Bring your honest questions to Him, and then ask Him to help you see Him clearly again, not through the lens of disappointment but through the sanctuary of His presence and His promises. Ask Him to show you what He is doing through the closed doors, and to give you trust to walk with Him one day at a time.

May the Lord meet you in this painful place, remind you that He is for you in Christ, and give you fresh mercy for today as you keep your eyes on Him rather than on the problems in front of you.