3 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— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Colossians 4:2-4 NIV.
Passion for the Lost Part 4
“I’m going to America, Today!” As I sang, I changed the words to the Neil Diamond song. I was a junior in college and on a mission trip to Taiwan for 8 weeks. Our problem was that our Visas only covered 30 days and we were 1 day from being out. All of our team was praying for grace that our Visas would be extended. We had not completed our assignment. We had no money to purchase another ticket for home. We needed God to open another door, otherwise we were going “back” to America.
You can walk and chew gum at the same time…or at least we should be able to do it. Paul says that we should include intercessor prayer for others, while we are praying for our own needs. Notice the phrase, “At the same time”. Paul already anticipated that they would be praying together as a church, now he wants them to remember to include him in their prayers.
Specifically, he asked them to pray for him to experience open doors…for conversations or speeches about the mystery of Christ. It is a pleasant experience when visiting a restaurant to have a greeter open the door for you. It makes you feel welcome and your presence anticipated. This is also true for times when we get to share the good news of Jesus with a person who wants to hear what you have to say.
Discouragement is always lurking when we encounter difficulties while pursuing sharing the gospel. Weather conditions, obstacles for meeting space, lack of funding resources, resistance from key community leaders, and/ or lack of response can cause a person to quit to early. Our prayers can bring encouragement and breakthrough for the missionary and his/ her work.
Passion follows our prayers. Let our prayers be focused around the anticipation of open doors to share the gospel. Many people need the encouragement from our prayers.
Blessings Love y’all.