“ I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” Revelation 3:8

When God opens a door, no man can shut it. Sometimes people may not want you to do something so they’ll tell you that God has shut that door, but has God really shut it? Or is man attempting to shut it? If God doesn’t shut a door, it doesn’t really matter what people say. People and circumstances may attempt to block the path God has for you, but unless He has really shut it, there is nothing man can do to keep you from that open door. Sometimes people want to keep you from what God has for you and they are being motivated by their own desires not God’s desires.

I once had a boss that was always working against me, trying to sabotage my efforts. According to him, this was healthy competition. Yes, my boss was competing with me! He had bosses above him too that he was trying to please no matter what it might cost someone else. He was motivated by his own desire to get ahead so he would constantly throw me under the bus so that I would fail. In this case, he was shutting the door, not necessarily God. What’s worse is that he was a professing Christian.

If our hearts were right with God, we would want others to succeed even if it costs us something, because true Christian leadership seeks to lift others up rather than step on them to get ahead.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians 2:3-4

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” Romans 12:10