Article Library

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By Pastor Chuck Swindoll

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Four Guidelines on Open and Closed Doors

“Before I finish the story, I’ll give you four guidelines on open doors, closed doors. Number one, since God is sovereign, He is in full control on both sides of any door. Second, being in full control, God takes full responsibility for the results. Number three, the closing of a good opportunity occurs in order to lead us to an even better one. And number four, not until you walk through the open door and look back, do you realize the necessity of the other doors being closed.”

The Scattered Acorns Bearing Fruit for God’s Glory

“The Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle, nineteenth century writer, essayist, historian, put it this way: ‘When the oak tree is felled, the whole forest echoes with it, but a hundred acorns are planted silently by some unnoticed breeze.’ When the door slams in our face, we don’t think that poetically. All we can hear is the falling of our oak and the thud as it hits the forest, destroying our dream, our hope, our anticipation. We don’t think at that moment that there are some acorns being whisked away and blown to a place that will grow and bear fruit for God’s glory through an open door.”

When God Closes a Door

“If you have ever planned a series of meetings or a strategy putting together for the purpose of making the gospel known, some evangelistic effort on a campus, some idea for a community or a church or a gathering of churches and it falls flat, it’s the most disillusioning feeling. You feel like a failure. You feel like you were poor in planning. You weren’t sensitive to the Holy Spirit. None of the above is true. God closed the door, but we’re not ready to understand closed doors. We like open doors, especially when we’re not told why they closed. After all, we’re the potter. Oops. He’s the Potter. We’re the clay. We’re the responders, not the initiators when the plan is of God. He initiates it, we then carry it out.”

He is the Potter and We Are the Clay

“Times like that, we are humbly reminded that He is the Potter and we are the clay. He is the Master and we are the servant. Now, we all know that theoretically. There isn’t a person in this room that would deny that. We say we willingly bow before Him, that He is our God and He is our guide, O great Jehovah. I’m just a pilgrim in a barren land and I’m moving toward the goal of honoring You and serving You and now this. To make it even more difficult, God does not tell us why.”

Don’t Waste Your Time Trying to Understand Closed Doors

“That is a man you want to follow. Not a word of argument. ‘Before I go, please explain why those doors were closed.’ Nope, none of that. That’s a waste of time. Get on past the closed doors. There’s something great to be reaped by going to the open ones. So they set their faces like a flint and set sail to Macedonia.”

Additional Resources

First, sign up for our Chuck’s Insights on Ministry email where we bring you his best thoughts on preaching, leadership, and ministry each week. By signing up, you’ll instantly receive a one-page checklist with 20 preaching insights from Chuck. See this page’s sidebar.

Second, check out our new Preach The Word articles and video series on YouTube where we’re teaching Chuck’s best insights on this important calling.

Third, listen to Chuck’s messages to those in ministry through our Seminary Chapels page. For decades, he offered students at Dallas Theological Seminary his best thoughts on church leadership and ministry. Now, we have put them at your fingertips. Also, you can find them through this YouTube playlist we created for you.

Fourth, if you don’t own a copy of Chuck’s book on preaching, Saying It Well, we highly recommend you add it to your library. It’s his preaching memoir that is also like a practical preaching manual. You won’t be able to put it down.

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