Do You Get Nervous When You See an OPEN DOOR?

     Tired and spent, 2022 is just about to leave town and pave the way for 2023 to appear with its fresh face. That shrill siren is warning us that time for reflecting on the past 12 months is quickly vanishing like a child’s balloon escaping into the hungry sky. That’s why we’re conducting this month-long, year-end review of 2022 and taking our FAITH INVENTORY. For today, it’s another question begging to be addressed by us: “Who will we be one year from today?”

     I am NOT talking about what we will have “achieved” or “accumulated.” The question is WHO we will be as a child of God and what we will DO for him and his Kingdom.

    Here’s why this has NOTHING to do with New Year Resolutions:

    Most resolutions default to ACHIEVING SOMETHING the world covets and rarely on BEING SOMEONE God is pleased with and blesses.

     With that in mind, we need to ask God what kind of person he wants us to BE one year from today. Where he wants us to focus our ATTENTION. And what FRUITS he would have our faith walk produce.

     Before I get to the headline’s OPEN DOOR, it’s important to break our grip on the future–dreaming about it and trying to manufacture it on our own.

     Fixating on 2023 and beyond in this manner is a dangerous incubator for worry and fear. And it completely LEAVES GOD OUT. We end up playing a game that labels our future-oriented planning as “searching for God’s Will.”

     But are we really searching for God’s will or just attempting to find a fully revealed roadmap for our life?

     In most cases, it’s looking for that elusive roadmap. It’s elusive because it’s an illusion. If we knew the future, we would think there was no need for God going forward.

     We search for God’s will as if it’s LOST. But God’s will—who we will be one year from today–is only lost if we equate it with a prescribed pathway punctuated by achievements and accomplishments. That is NOT God’s will.

     We are not supposed to wait on God’s will for our life like it was a BIG BANG REVEAL. God’s will for our life is found on our walk with him, listening for direction and discerning his wishes for how we will serve him.

     OK…now let’s toggle back to that OPEN DOOR.

     The question–WHO will we be as a Christian one year from now–CANNOT be answered if we get nervous when God walks us in front of an OPEN DOOR.

     I ask God to give me his clarity and peace about the new year and who he would have me be and what he would have me do for him and the others he providentially places on my pathway. To keep me focused on BEING and prepared to fight off the urge to concentrate on ACHIEVING.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Who will you BE one year from now? Will you get nervous when you see an OPEN DOOR?

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

“Listen, you that say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will travel to a certain city, where we will stay a year and go into business and make a lot of money.’ You don’t even know what your life tomorrow will be! You are like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears. What you should say is this: ‘If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.’” James 4:13–15