Imagine that you must knock on the door of someone who does not know you. You stand outside and wait. Someone peers through the peep hole and opens the door a crack to see if you are someone they want to talk to. “Yes?” they ask cautiously. By now you are feeling very uncomfortable. But your feeling could be drastically different if they open the door, push open the screen door, and excitedly say, “Come on in!” You know you are welcome and what you have to say will be received.
God’s Word tells us about open doors. Paul says in I Corinthians 16:9, that “a great door for effective work” had opened to him. And in II Corinthians 2:12, Paul “went to Troas to preach the Gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for [him].” There were times when Paul prayed that God would open a door for the message of Christ (Colossians 4:3).
I believe that an open door given by God is more than just an opportunity. It is when people throw open their hearts and welcome, or invite, the Gospel. I believe, like Paul, that we should be praying for open doors to share the Gospel.
In the book of Revelation, the church of Philadelphia was commended by the Lord Jesus because they kept His word and did not deny Him although they had little strength. They had endured patiently. So what did Jesus do for them? He gave them “an open door that no one [could] shut.”
My desire is that we live like the church of Philadelphia so that Jesus will open doors for me and you to share the Gospel to this lost world. Let us be praying for that!
-Linda McCarthy
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