A Prayer for Guidance When the Doors Keep Closing

Father, I knocked and it did not open. I tried again, harder, and still nothing. Door after door has closed in my face, and I am starting to wonder if You are blocking my way or if I am simply not enough.

I confess the closed doors have wounded me. I have read them as rejection, taken each no personally, and let them quietly convince me that You have forgotten the things I long for.

But maybe these closings are not punishments. Maybe they are protection, or redirection, Your hand steering me away from what would have harmed me toward something I cannot yet see.

So help me stop pounding on doors You have shut. Pry my fingers off the frame. Turn me to face the one door that is Yours, even if it is somewhere I never thought to look.

Your word reminds me You open what no one can shut and shut what no one can open, and that Your closings are as purposeful as Your openings.

I will trust the no as much as the yes. Lead me, Lord, past the locked doors to the threshold You are holding open just for me. Amen.