The weight of professional strife lies not outside the governance of Him who makes the high tree to dry up and the low tree to flourish. When men obstruct and scrutinise, when schemes are devised in secret, consider that from the time when Satan fell, God’s purpose was to break down everything which set itself up in opposition to Him. The jealousy you face is not unknown to the Divine Architect; He works to display His own perfections, and often the friction of enmity is the chisel by which He carves His image in us.
Yet think not that favour comes by the absence of trial. A life without them would be a setting sun without clouds, scantly revealing the hues of grace. Our trials, sanctified by the Spirit, become the soil where peace and resilience grow. The open door you seek is no mere administrative permission; the veil is torn from top to bottom, and the way into the Divine Presence stands wide and cannot be shut. When earthly gates seem barred, plead the open heavens through which Christ has gone to plead for you. Let this be your chief petition: not merely that school administration yields, but that the Divine visitation rends the mountains of difficulty and leaves a clear path.
As for the obstruction of management and the assignment of classes, this too lies under the Divine command. Generosity marks the Lawgiver, and He bids you open your hand wide even to those who oppose, for He calls them your own poor and needy. That is a hard grace, but it is the sweet savor of Christ in you. Your acceptance does not depend on workplace victories, but on the sweet savor of Jesus in the nostrils of the Most High. Lay hold of that, and earthly schemes lose their frightful power. The high tree of office politics will soon be laid outstretched along the plains of ruin, while the lowly, watered by the Husbandman, mounts to fruitfulness.
The open fountain remains for you now, for cleansing when the dust of envy clings, for reviving when worldliness tries to creep in. Are you provoked? Come and wash. Do you fear your standing is compromised? The fountain is open, and its merits are most holy, purely offered. None can shut it against you, for it was opened for sinners and remains open for the saint who stumbles. Here is your protection: not a life free from unfair schemes, but a soul sheltered under the Divine Sovereignty. That doctrine is most comforting to the children of God. Trace His hand in these very oppositions. They are a dark providence, perhaps, but they become an open evidence of your right to the inheritance when they drive you to Christ and test the genuineness of your faith. The world’s opposition is often a rough seal upon a true deed.
Divine interposition does not always come by making calamity impossible. The train of hostility may thunder on, but His hand can stay its career in a moment, or, more wonderfully, bear you above its fury, delivering your soul from death, your eyes from tears, and your feet from falling. He will thrust out your enemies before you, but He also says, Destroy them by prayer, by patient endurance, by returning good for evil. Forward His command with obedience, and you shall see breakthroughs that are the fruits of His going, not merely your striving.
Let your expectation rest in the Divine Presence as the one hope. The Church needs nothing else, and the believer needs nothing more. When the Presence comes, the glaciers of error and malice dissolve. For your international projects, travel, and classes, the door is open by His decree. Plead the open heaven, plead the open fountain, and pledge yourself afresh as one accepted in the Beloved. He shall be your God of Jeshurun, riding upon the heaven in your help, and in His excellency on the sky.