Devoted To Open Doors

Again, God moved in a real fun way and I feel so blessed to be a part of it. My Amazing girlfriend and I were reading through Colossians 4 and something just struck a chord with me. The fun in the whole situation was seeing something in the passage that I normally overlook. See Colossians 4 is the part of the chapter where Paul is closing the letter, and he normally has his own prayer requests, repeated exhortations, and a small list of names of people and their qualities. Who want to read that? Well God showed me how alive his word really is and how everything is there for a reason.

“2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” COLOSSIANS 4:2-4

Now there is a lot more to this chapter, but this is what God blew my mind with. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul reminds the Colossian Church to be devoted to prayer.  In doing so, we are reminded to be watchful and thankful.  The ESV puts verse 2 like this, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”  This passage poses some questions. Are you steadfast in prayer? Are you devoted to watchful and thankful prayer? I know that this is an area where I could step up. It’s time for us to remember that we are called to pray. Jesus implies in the Sermon on the Mount that prayer is not something we can do when we feel like, it’s something we should do a lot (MATTHEW 6:5-14). Are you devoted to prayer?

Check this next part out! Paul asks, “pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.” This is something I really would just read past and not think twice, but read it again and see if something hits you like it did for me. God showed me that this should be a regular prayer that I pray in my life. Be honest with yourself, when is the last time you said a prayer like this before you went into work? How about before you went to the grocery store? How about when you hang out with your friends? Further, Paul reminds them that it’s because of sharing the “message” that he is in jail. What’s that all about? I know Paul was in jail, but what does that have to do with me. This passage was so convicting to me because here Paul has put his life on the line to share his faith and to help people rise to new life in Jesus, and here I am not even asking for God to open the door for me to share the truth with people who really aren’t even threatened by it! I feel like a lot of the time that there a bunch of us, me included, that just don’t get it! I have heard story after story as of late of people that are in other countries around the world that are doing exactly what Paul did, and we are too worried about why God isn’t fixing our little insignificant problems.

I’m not here to try and say that people’s problems aren’t hard or aren’t a big deal. What I am saying though is that the reason our walks feel mediocre is because we aren’t taking time to seek the heart of God in prayer. If we are making time to pray, we spend so much time talking and not enough time listening to God speak his heart. I think it’s time we get a little more DEVOTED to Prayer and listening to the heart and will of God. Paul gets it right, it is the will of God for us to share the “Mystery of Christ” to all. We can’t do this properly without Gods help (v. 4). 

Will today be the day you start asking Jesus to teach you how to pray?

Will today be the start of your journey to sharing the “Mystery of Christ” to everyone?

I know that today is the day for me, and Lord Jesus I pray that you remind me of this every single breath!

God bless you Beloved