Open Wide the Doors, this CNY!
Colossians 4:2-5 says:
2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned;”
In the book of Colossians, Paul asks the church to pray for an open door.
The 2 most persuasive interpretative possibilities are:
1) This is Paul’s way of asking the church to pray that he will be released from prison so as to be able to go out and share the gospel.
2) Paul is not specifically asking for a prison break but is just asking in a general sense that opportunities for gospel sharing will come his way (regardless of whether he is in or out of prison).
I might be wrong, but I think I’ll go for option 2 because of 2 reasons:
1) Even when Paul was out of prison, he still needed doors to be opened for evangelism (1 Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 2:12).
2) Imprisonment never seemed to deter Paul’s missionary work (Philippians 1:12-13).
Yes today is Chinese New Year (CNY) and most of us are going to meet lots of pre-believing relatives in this season. As God’s redeemed people that have been so blessed by the gospel, how we wish that our kinsmen can too, be blessed by the gospel. Well, one thing we can do is to pray for open doors. Pray that God will orchestrate opportunities for us to share the gospel to them.
2 reasons why I’d like to encourage you to pray such prayers:
1) It’s scriptural (since Paul asked the church to pray it)
2) If this super anointed, miracle-working apostle to the gentiles need to (through prayer) rely on God to provide opportunities for gospel sharing, how much more we!
Don’t let this CNY go by without praying for opportunities. We all desire to share the good news; we just need God to “open up to us a door for the word”.
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