God Knows About Closed Doors

God knows the agony of more closed doors than anyone ever will. God has given to every person the key to the door of their own heart, but God will not force his way in. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock…”(Rev.3:20)

It’s not just that we hope God will open a door for us, but God hopes we will open a door for him.

We have or inevitably will someday stand in pain at a closed door. I cannot provide an explanation or reasons your heartfelt felt prayers are not answered, but I can point you to a Person. I can tell you that at the heart of the gospel is a desperate unanswered prayer.

Jesus prayed, “Father, if it is possible, may this cup, this suffering, this death be taken from me.” Yet not my will, but yours, be done.” As author John Ortberg said, “This is the most desperate prayer ever prayed from the most discerning spirit that ever lived, from the purest heart that ever beat, for deliverance from the most unjust suffering ever known. And all it got was silence. Heaven was not moved. The cup was not taken from him. The request was denied. The door remained closed.”

That unwanted and unjust suffering became the hope of the world because the ultimate answer to every human drama is a blood-soaked cross where the Son of God himself suffered. Nobody has all the answers, but what if our most difficult prayer requests were answered yes?  

What if God had said yes to His son’s request? What if Jesus had been spared his suffering? What if there had been no cross, no death, no tomb, no resurrection, no forgiveness of sins, no birth of the church? What if? I don’t know why some prayers get yeses and some prayers get nos.

I know the disappointment of a no when you desperately need a yes more than anything in the world, but I don’t know why. I only know that in the cross God’s no to his only Son turned into God’s yes to everyone who ever lived. Yours and my unanswered prayer or a closed door just might be to other people’s benefit, we just need to trust God that He knows what's best!