We usually think of open doors as opportunities where all the obstacles have been removed. Sometimes that is indeed the case. You get a job offer out of the blue, no interview necessary. You find just the kind of car you were looking for, at a bargain price. Romance comes your way, and you weren’t even looking! Someone unexpectedly invites you to join them in their ministry in the church.

Quite often, doors open up in such ways. It seems like God is clearing the way for you to take advantage of a new and exciting opportunity.

Sometimes, however, an open door is not the easy way at all.

Writing to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul says, “For I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” (1 Corinthians 16:7-9).

What’s that? There are many who oppose you? That doesn’t sound anything like our typical thoughts about an open door! It seems that an open door for effective work does not always involve taking the least difficult path forward. Sometimes an open door is the easy way out. At other times it is the hard way through. It takes some discernment on our part to determine if God is leading us in a certain direction, and we must be ever diligent to watch for open doors, no matter how they present themselves.