“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”1
A young man, accepted for the African missionary field, reported at New York for “passage,” but found on further examination that his wife could not stand the climate in Africa. He was heartbroken, but he prayerfully returned to his home and determined to make all the money he could to be used on spreading the Kingdom of God over the world. His father, a dentist, had started to make, on the side, an unfermented wine for the [church] communion service. The young man took the business over and developed it until it assumed vast proportions—his name was “Welch,” whose family still manufactures “grape juice.”2
As the old saying goes, “When God closes one door, he opens another.” True, it can be a challenging time “waiting in the hallway” for the next door to open, but as long as we commit and trust our life and way to God every day, in good time the next door will open. Of this we can be sure—during the waiting time there is always a lesson of some kind that God is seeking to teach us and wanting us to learn.
Sometimes it takes a crushing disappointment to make us effective and fruitful and ready for the next door to open.
Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to see in every disappointment and setback what you are seeking to teach me. Help me to learn that lesson so that I will be ready and prepared for any new door or opportunity you may open for me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
1. Gal. 6:10 (NIV).
2. The Presbyterian Advance, cited in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, Paul Lee Tan, p. 479.
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