“Why won’t this key work?”

I turned the card around and tried again. Perhaps I had placed it too close to my cell phone and de-magnetized the strip. I removed the duplicate from its paper pouch and carefully inserted it into the slot by the door.

No, luck.

I simply wanted to escape to my room for a few quiet moments. Now, I would have to go back down to the lobby and ask the receptionist to re-program my room key. In heels higher than I’m accustomed, I gingerly walked around to the elevator. I stepped inside and realized I was on the fourth floor.

Right room, wrong floor. Right key, wrong door.

Has this ever happened to you?

Wiggling the key. Trying again. Hoping a door would open.

Sometimes, we take the encouragement to ask, seek, and knock as the key to open any door we want. But we aren’t meant for the treasure behind every threshold.

Believe me, I’ve been there. I’ve exhausted myself trying to accomplish something on my own, suffered numb knees begging God, and given too much of myself away searching for affirmation and blessing.

We may perform well and have pure motives, but I can only walk through doors God has designated as mine. Forcing our way into something for which we are unprepared or unassigned makes us intruders into someone else’s calling, a thief of their blessing, and a trespasser in the territory God marked for them.

The not so gentle correction in James 4:3 convicts me often of petitioning God for my desires instead of His glory. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” But how do we know what to ask?

The key to reconciling these verses is found in John 15:7. Jesus says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

Abide in Jesus to ask appropriately.

Heeding Jesus’ teaching, obeying The Word, and relying on guidance from the Holy Spirit ensures we find ourselves in front of the right doors on the correct floors at the proper times. God gives us the key, but to find our door we must act in accordance with His will.

Abiding in Him aligns our desires with the will of The One who assigns the keys, creates the doors, and bestows the blessings.

God prepares personalized assignments for us all. He constructed a door specifically for me. There is one marked with your name, too. No matter how enticing the treasure behind someone else’s door may seem, walking into our own God-sized opportunities will exceed our wildest expectations.

Avoid knocking on the wrong doors by abiding in Him before asking.

Dear Father, Thank you so much for protecting me from being an intruder in someone else’s treasure by securing their doors with locks only their rightful owner can open. Thank you for the blessings you have prepared just for me. Help me to always abide before I ask, seek, or knock, so that I would ask in accordance with Your perfect will! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7)”