To Encourage You

Colossians 4:3-4 “pray . . .  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— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.”

What an incredible prayer request from the apostle Paul is found in the passage above.  Here is Paul, languishing in a Roman prison because he had been preaching the Word of God.  And what is his prayer? It’s not that he be released. It’s not that God would overthrow his tormentors.  It’s not a prayer for comfort from his affliction.  Rather, in the face of imprisonment for preaching the Word of God, he doubles down with a request that he have  even more opportunities to preach it.  It’s that in this very situation, bound, with no way out, that God would open a door for Him to preach the Word to those who had him bound – and to preach it very clearly.  He knew that the only hope for his captors was that they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He knew that they were bound in a much deeper bondage than he was, for they were prisoners of sin, death, and hell.  Paul knew that his own bonds were temporary, but that theirs’ were eternal, unless they were freed by way of the truth of the gospel.  In this impossible situation Paul prayed for and watched for the open doors that only God could provide to share the gospel. 

So, if you are a Christian, what’s your situation in life right now?  What are your circumstances?  Are they situations in which you would rather not be? But are you aware that God may have placed you there for the very purpose of opening a door to let His gospel in?   Paul would not be shut up.  He would not be kept from the mission God had given Him.  Though there was much opposition, Paul pressed on.  Can anyone accuse you and me of this?  Are we people that are telling those in our lives the message of the gospel?  And if we’ve been opposed, have we given in or doubled down, constantly looking for and praying for new doors to be opened?  

You see, it’s prayers such as that of Paul that God is in the business of answering, for it’s this very thing that God would have us to be about, i.e., open doors for the clear message of salvation for those whom God has placed in our lives by His Providence.  May God help us to have the courage to pray for such things, and the boldness to enter in when God, Who can do anything, most assuredly, opens the door.