We are staying here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and one of our main modes of transportation around the city is the LRT monorail. It’s nice because it is cheap and can link us to many destinations. It’s pretty easy to use too. You go to a kiosk that has a touch screen computer and you select your destination and then put your money in. It releases your change along with a blue chip. This blue chip is your ticket to ride.
When you want to enter the gate to get to the train you place your chip over the circle and it opens the gate and you can pass through. Also, after your ride and you have arrived to your final destination you place your chip in the slot and the gate opens so you can leave. Sometimes the gate doesn’t work right away. Either you didn’t properly place the chip over the circle or it didn’t feed through the slot right. Even more so, if you are at the wrong destination point the chip wont let you out.
Often times there is a lot of people so to help keep the flow of traffic moving you place your chip and step forward to proceed to the gate. There is a delay to when the scanner reads the chip and to when the gate opens. So you are stepping towards a gate that isn’t open yet in hope and belief that it will open.
It occurred to me that this is like faith. (see Hebrews 11) We often pray that God will open door for us or heal us in a particular way. We put our chip on the circle or into the slot (pray) and then we need to step out in faith that God will open that door. At first it feels weird and you might be hesitant and wait until the gate opens before take that step. But true faith is trusting that that door will open every time. The Bible says ask and you will receive so we need walk as if we have already received it (Matthew 7:7). So it’s time to make sure we are walking in that faith and not waiting for God to make His move before we make ours.
What about those times that the gate doesn’t open you ask. Well, God doesn’t answer every prayer we pray for. Why is that? Well, He kind of has this omniscience thing going on and He knows more than us. I cannot even count the times I have thought I knew better than God. As much as I think I know, He knows better and has something better planned for us. Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” The Bible doesn’t promise an easy life so sometimes that path that is best for us isn’t the easier path. I know I would pray for the easier way out but without hardship how are we truly able to grow and mature in life or our faith. Likewise, God has a way of answering our prayers but in a completely different way that we would have expected. Often times we cannot see it when we are in it but retrospectively we can see how he answered prayer after prayer.
Furthermore, like I mentioned, if we are not at the right destination the gate wont open. God has the best destination in mind for us so He will keep those door closed to the wrong ones until we reach the right one. It’s not that He is trying to take our free will away or keep us from being happy. We can jump the gate if we really want to get through (good luck with that). He does this because he loves us so much that he wants what is best for us even if we don’t always see it like that.
So if by chance that gate doesn’t open, keep trying. Keep praying. Or perhaps we got off at the wrong stop, so we need to keep looking for the right one. Otherwise we are going to keep riding the monorail of life and we are never going to be able to see the world that God has for us beyond the gate at the train stop. I don’t know about you but that sounds pretty boring to me.
