Scripture:
Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. Acts 16:6
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matt 7:7
Reflection:
Alexander Bell the III, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. At the age of 10, his father granted him permission to add a middle name to distinguish him from his father and grandfather. He adopted the middle name Graham after a childhood friend and was known as Alexander Graham Bell.
Alexander’s mother had a childhood illness that caused her to be mostly deaf and reliant on an ear trumpet to hear anything. As a child, Alexander would speak close to his mother’s forehead so she could feel the vibrations of his voice. Alexander’s father and grandfather were both distinguished speech therapists. From a young age, Alexander learned how to communicate with the hearing impaired. Following in his father’s footsteps, Alexander became a voice teacher and in 1873 a professor of vocal physiology at Boston University. It was there that he met his future wife, Mabel Hubbard, a student who had lost her hearing from scarlet fever as a child. Living and working with the hearing impaired was the genesis of his experiments in transmitting sound waves over wires and his life’s work… becoming the inventor or both the telegraph and telephone.
Alexander once said regarding the circumstances of his childhood, “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one which has opened for us.” What seems like God closing a door may just be the miracle of God opening a door in a new direction.
As followers of Jesus, it is duplicitous of us to ask God to open a door if we are not willing to let him close another door. A closed door can be just as much a miracle as an open door. A trial can be just as much part of the way God is working in us as a blessing. We see blessings and open doors as God’s miraculous working in our lives, but difficulties and closed doors as Satans hinderances. Maybe the “anti-miracle” of a prayer not being answered or a door being closed should be seen by us as just as big of a miracle as God opening doors in our lives. A “no” or “not yet” from our loving Heavenly Father might be a better answer and a better miracle than the yes we’ve been hoping for. An “Anti-miracle” might just be a miracle from God, with different clothes on!
Thank you Lord for closed doors.
David
Recent Comments