By: Pastor Jarren Rogers

“God is able to accomplish, provide, help, save, keep, subdue… He is able to do what you can’t. He already has a plan. God’s not bewildered. Go to Him.” – Max Lucado

Maybe this has happened to you before. But, for me, this was a first.

I was walking out of a building. I noticed through the glass of the door that another man was coming towards me to enter the building I was leaving. I decided to be mannerly and as I exited out the door, I held it open for him to enter.

Instead of walking through the door I held open, he looked at me and said, “Thanks but I’ve got it,” and proceeded to throw wide the opposite door and enter through it instead.

I was bewildered. Why would anyone decline help when it is easily and readily available? But as I thought about this peculiar instance I thought about the many, many, many . . . many times I’ve done the same thing. Maybe you have too.

“God is our refuge and our strength, and ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

It can be so easy for us to refuse God’s help. We may not think of it that way, but when we try to solve our issues on our own, it’s as if we are bypassing the door that God is holding open for us and opening another one for ourselves.

Going further, sometimes God opens a door for us that looks scary. It might not be what we had in mind and it very well might not be in our comfort zone. But God is opening that door for your help not your harm.

And once God opens a door, you better believe that it stays open:

“What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name” (Revelation 3:7-8).

Sometimes when we don’t like the door that God holds open for us, we attempt to squeeze ourselves through a window or through a crack in the wall. We try to make our own way and ignore God’s help.

Stooping to such measures may breed short-term pleasures or rewards but because it is not God’s plan, I can promise you, it will end in disaster.

This doesn’t mean that God’s grace is out of reach even after we’ve sidestepped his open door. He will meet us even after we have neglected His help and He will once again open another door to His deliverance.

God is faithful.

He is our ever-present help in trouble.

Parents: Ask your children about the last time that they needed help. Explain to them that whenever they need help, whether big or small, they can call upon God to open a door of deliverance for them.