333 of 365 - Open Doors

At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison. Colossians 4:3
 
Paul’s prayer request while sitting in a Roman prison? Open doors to proclaim the gospel. The thing that got him in prison in the first place is the thing he is asking for prayers to be able to do more of. His blinding encounter with the risen Jesus not only changed his life, it changed his mission and passion.

Paul planted churches and he preached the Word to so many people in so many places who then planted churches. But now here he is in prison. Might he be thinking doors that were once open to him were now closed? What does he do with this time? He writes letters. Something he may not have had time to do if we were out planting more churches. I wonder what he thinks in heaven watching us today reading from one of the many letters he wrote from prison. These prison letters and the others he wrote make him the most influential writer of the most read book of all time. Oh, doors were open. He didn’t see it at the time, but the impact he had because of his passion, perseverance, and single-minded focus on Jesus regardless of his circumstances is mind-blowing.

If, like Paul, you feel all the doors around you are closed, let this encourage you that they are more open than you think. Be persistent. Keep praying. Do what God is telling you to do. Your obedience will have far more impact than you can see once God gets His hands on it.

But I suspect most of us recognize that there are open doors all around us, we just aren’t walking through them. Let’s decide to take mustard-seed-yeast-size steps through those doors. If we really believed the news was as good as we say it is, we would want it to be told.

Questions: What doors has God strategically placed around you? Are you eagerly walking through or are you scared to step in? Or, do you feel like all the doors are closed? Ask God to show you the open doors He wants you to walk through today.