I can't count how many times I have heard it said "If this is not the Lord's will, I want Him to close the door," or the opposite, i.e., "If this is the Lord's will, I want Him to open this door." Brethren, "closed" or "open" doors are not, necessarily, an evidence of the Lord's will! Sometimes the Lord places an "open door" before us to test our faith, to see if He and His ways, i.e., the ways with which He has already blessed our life, are more important to us than whatever the "open door" seems to promise. In other words, sometimes the Lord places an "open door" before us to let us see for ourselves whether or not we have the love for and faith in Him to close it ourselves and remain in "the place of true blessing."

     God is certainly the God of circumstances. In other words, His providence rules over all things. But circumstances are not our God. We are to walk by faith, to seek His will without placing qualifications or human rationales on it, not by sight. The true guide for the believer who is truly in submission to the Lord is His revealed Word, not circumstances.

Psalm 43:3–4    O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God.

Psalm 119:133 (NASB)    Establish my footsteps in Your word, And do not let any iniquity have dominion over me.

Psalm 119:133 (KJV)      Order my steps in thy word: And let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

     Friends, do not bow down to the god of circumstances, to "doing what is right in your own eyes." Though this may provide you with some temporal advantage, the end will not be good.