Acts 14:6-15
Paul was forbidden to preach in Asia. We would say there is no place where one should not be glad to preach. But we see here that sometimes, even where there are people who need the Word, it may not be our duty to speak to them. God shuts doors as well as opens them. We are not to do whatever work we find for ourselves, but what God gives us to do. Opportunities are not always doors of duty. There are needy places to which we are not to go – some other one must go to these, while we pass on to farther fields. We must then be as ready to accept the Lord’s restraining as his leadings forward.
One night Paul had a vision. He saw a man of Macedonia standing, beseeching him, and saying, “Come over into Macedonia, and help us.”
Twice in the preceding verses have we seen doors shut, because the Lord did not wish Paul to enter them, having other work waiting for him a little farther on. Now a great door was opened. There was a large and needy field lying beyond in the darkness. The gospel had never yet crossed over into Europe, and now god wanted Paul to carry it there. That is why he had hindered him from entering the other fields. So for all of us some doors are shut and others opened. No vision may come to guide us in our work, but there will always be some kind of guidance if we are ready to go wherever God wants us to go.
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