When God Builds a Wall (revisited)

When God Builds a Wall (Revisited)

I received a comment yesterday on a blog I posted a year ago which caused me to re-read and remember what was happening at that time in my life. I then talked with a couple of people today who are facing walls of sorts in their lives right now and so thought I'd re-post this.

You may have heard the saying, 'When God closes a door, He opens a window.' It sounds nice and is something we like to read in our little box of promises, but in my experience, sometimes the door closes and there is no window in sight. In fact, sometimes it seems as if God closes a door and builds a wall! I think the difficult thing for us to understand (at least for me) is that our circumstances (and by that I mean our comfort) are really not the way we determine if God is at work or not. I mean, imagine if Mary and Joseph used their circumstances to determine if God was at work in their lives or not. Here they are on their way to Bethlehem in the last days of Mary's pregnancy (riding on a donkey, no less) all because some hedonistic king wants to take a census so he can get more money. Do you think that maybe they were feeling a little stressed out? I know in that circumstance I would be wondering, "Ok God, where's the window that my promise book talked about?"
It is only in retrospect that we understand God was orchestrating all of mankind to bring about the most incredible event that would ever take place in human history, that the Word would become flesh and dwell among us, but I bet you a million to one Joseph and Mary weren't feeling the love at that moment.

What drives people to keep moving forward in faith? It's definitely not circumstances. Maybe it's perseverance in spite of what we see, or fail to see. In 1 Samuel 14:13 it speaks of Jonathan and his armor bearer climbing up, using their hands and feet to engage the Philistine army who severely outnumbered them. Now why is that verse in the Scriptures? If he was climbing, what else would he use besides his hands and feet? Maybe the same way Jonathan climbed the mountain and Joseph & Mary made their way to Bethlehem is also the way we get past the walls in front of us.
So when it seems like God has closed the door and put up a wall, you can wait for a window, or you can use your hands and feet

...and get over it