Open Door
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 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— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.”—Colossians 1:2-4
Billy Graham’s Autobiography, Just As I Am, chronicles his faith and the faith of those around Him. They believed God wanted to reach people and dedicated themselves to that fact. One specific tool they believed God had given them was prayer. They believed in private and corporate prayer, going so far as to organize a great deal of prayer meetings. Before he would ever go to a place to conduct an evangelistic meeting he would send his team ahead to organize prayer meetings and rallies. His team would rally and organize prayer meetings with churches, ministries, pastors, and anyone else who desired to pray.
During the 1950’s at one of his crusades in Australia, his team managed to (by God’s grace) organize 5,000 prayer meetings in Sydney alone! 5,000! They believed God wanted to save people, but they also understood that God has enlisted man’s help. But, man cannot help himself—what I mean is, man cannot transform the heart of another man. Only God can do that, but He uses the prayers, preaching, and words of men to help bring that transformation about. Man must be willing, but it is God who changes a heart. And these men and women of God began to pray that God would change hearts, they He would save sinners. You see, God works salvation in men and women’s hearts. And He does so when His people pray. He wants His people to want it as much as He does. He wants us to pray for open doors for the Gospel just as Paul asked the church at Colossae to pray for him.
Do we believe this? Do we believe in the power of prayer? Do we pray for open doors for the gospel? I believe that all too often we have given up on God. We have given into the lie that this world has gone too far! That this world just doesn’t care! That maybe true that the world does not care and people do not want God, but we must show by the very fabric of our lives that we do. And we must ask God to break our hearts that we might reach out to the lost, that we might pray day and night for the souls of those who are far from God. That we might reach out to the blasphemers, the arrogant, the drunks, the fornicators, the adulterers, the gambler, the apathetic, and the pathetic. We need to plead with God again—because we cannot do this on our own. God has handed this baton to us to run with, and run we must. But we cannot run on our own, we must enlist His help to run before us and to run with us, but we must RUN no matter what obstacle may come. Souls depend on it! Amen.
Billy Graham’s Autobiography, Just As I Am, chronicles his faith and the faith of those around Him. They believed God wanted to reach people and dedicated themselves to that fact. One specific tool they believed God had given them was prayer. They believed in private and corporate prayer, going so far as to organize a great deal of prayer meetings. Before he would ever go to a place to conduct an evangelistic meeting he would send his team ahead to organize prayer meetings and rallies. His team would rally and organize prayer meetings with churches, ministries, pastors, and anyone else who desired to pray.
During the 1950’s at one of his crusades in Australia, his team managed to (by God’s grace) organize 5,000 prayer meetings in Sydney alone! 5,000! They believed God wanted to save people, but they also understood that God has enlisted man’s help. But, man cannot help himself—what I mean is, man cannot transform the heart of another man. Only God can do that, but He uses the prayers, preaching, and words of men to help bring that transformation about. Man must be willing, but it is God who changes a heart. And these men and women of God began to pray that God would change hearts, they He would save sinners. You see, God works salvation in men and women’s hearts. And He does so when His people pray. He wants His people to want it as much as He does. He wants us to pray for open doors for the Gospel just as Paul asked the church at Colossae to pray for him.
Do we believe this? Do we believe in the power of prayer? Do we pray for open doors for the gospel? I believe that all too often we have given up on God. We have given into the lie that this world has gone too far! That this world just doesn’t care! That maybe true that the world does not care and people do not want God, but we must show by the very fabric of our lives that we do. And we must ask God to break our hearts that we might reach out to the lost, that we might pray day and night for the souls of those who are far from God. That we might reach out to the blasphemers, the arrogant, the drunks, the fornicators, the adulterers, the gambler, the apathetic, and the pathetic. We need to plead with God again—because we cannot do this on our own. God has handed this baton to us to run with, and run we must. But we cannot run on our own, we must enlist His help to run before us and to run with us, but we must RUN no matter what obstacle may come. Souls depend on it! Amen.
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