April 26, 2026 Devo

There is a game show that’s been around since 1963 called “Let’s Make a Deal.” I was fascinated with it when I was a kid. If you’ve seen it, contestants have to pick what’s behind one of three doors. Often, after they’ve picked one, they get the chance to trade it for another door. Sometimes their first pick is something really nice, like a microwave or even a refrigerator, so they choose to keep it rather than risk trading it for a door that might have something useless behind it, like a goat or a plunger. But sometimes they pass up the chance to trade that nice gift for something spectacular, like a new car or an exotic vacation. New doors are risks. They are also opportunities.
When God opens new doors, it is not for random reasons. It may not be clear right away, but if God is in it, there is a purpose. I remember when I was here in OKC as an Associate Pastor. It was a great church with people we loved, and we had just built a brand-new facility with a high school-sized gymnasium. It was everything a young, ball-playing guy like me would want. But then, after six years here, God opened a door for me to go to a new church. This church was a church plant that a friend of mine had started the year before. It was less than a third of the size of the church we were at. They were renting a place to have Sunday services. Oh yeah, and my salary would have to be by faith because they weren’t bringing in enough money yet. But we believed God was in it. So we went.
Walking through that door turned out to be a life-changing move. God used that place not just to shape me to use me there, but He also used it to shape me in ways that changed how I did ministry from then on. When I went there, I thought it was because they needed ME. I discovered, though that part was true, the greater truth was I NEEDED THEM. I had no idea walking through it, but that door was God giving me a Major Gift. The pastor I’ve become and the people I have touched as God has used me in ministry, are because I said “Yes” to that door.
Reread our passage once again today. There are things we are blind to. There are places God wants to take us to that we are not aware of. I know that the door God may be asking you to walk through may be an “unfamiliar” one. I know you may not understand why He would have you leave what you’re doing, take a new role, step into a new ministry, or lead a new group. I can only tell you that there are times that there is work God wants to do, lives He wants to touch and change, or an impact He wants to make, and He needs YOU to walk through that door to do it. So, if you’ve been feeling God nudge or push you or He has set a door before you, the choice is yours. You stay right there in your comfort zone with that nice little microwave of a life you have. Or you can take what God has behind that door. Speaking from experience, I’d take the door! That’s God’s Word for you today.