We have all heard the saying “When one door closes, another door opens.” It often gives us comfort to believe this saying during low points in life, as life can sometimes feel like one slamming door after another. So often I think we focus too much on what the doors in our lives are—maybe it’s the door to reach that dream job we desire so greatly, or the door to be with that one person we so desperately think we need. We are so blindsided by these things—things we want, things we think we need. In fact, we become so blindsided that we start to have tunnel vision. It seems that we forget about the most important piece to this puzzle we call life. We forget that we are not the one holding the keys to these locked doors we encounter on a daily basis. It is God who serves as the locksmith.

Proverbs 16:9 explains this best by saying, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD directs his steps.” Only the true God can see into the future. He holds our future, accepts our past, and is very much alive and active in our present. God can see any potential bumps or roadblocks in the path ahead, and will do everything in His power to keep us on track—even if this means taking a detour or an alternate path that we never in a million years thought we would end up on.

The tricky and undoubtedly toughest part is knowing wholeheartedly with all of our mind and body that God has a plan for each and every one of us and doesn’t close doors without reason. This is a concept that we won’t fully understand until we realize that what we thought was best for us was NOT God’s best for us. God does not want us to settle. He did not create you and me to just simply exist. God wants us to go out to our own doors to be both strong and courageous. He wants us to pray for guidance and for help as He knows that we are only human and cannot get through this life all on our own.

And when God’s perfect timing is just right, He will answer our prayers. He will unlock the doors we need to get through in order to allow us to keep growing and living out His plan according to His will. As for other doors, He will knock them down. God rewards us when we have passed one of His tests, or when we are ready to let go of something holding us back. However, God’s timing may take longer than we want, or longer than originally anticipated. God asks us to be patient and to not get frustrated. We have to trust the process, it’s all we can do at times— lift it up to God and watch Him go to work in our lives so we may receive all His blessings, and be a blessing in the lives of others.

God is good and always faithful. We should never let closed doors lead us to doubt the goodness and character of God, nor doubt the opinion of how much God loves us. We might not fully understand the situation God places us in, but we can rest easy knowing that God does. God has you, and everything is under control.

John 13:7—Jesus replied, “You do not understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”