Praying for Open Doors

“Lord, give him the liberty of his calling, and bless him to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.  Give us attentive ears and receptive hearts, and bless us to leave this place changed, more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.”  Readers will recognize the familiar rhythm of this prayer as one heard countless times just before the sermon commences in a worship service.  On the surface, it follows protocol, complying with Paul’s request to the Colossians:  “That God would open unto us a door of utterance.”  But let’s be honest:  Have these prayers become dry formality?  Do we really believe our prayers for the preaching of the gospel are useful in any meaningful way?

Paul did!  As he closes his letter to the Colossian church, his final push is to urgently solicit prayer.  His directive:  Continue praying, be vigilant in thankful prayer, and pray!  To continue means to persevere so steadfastly that one could be termed a devotee.  On one hand, it is not surprising that Paul so urgently desired prayer - he was in prison!  But his release was not his focus.  Paul’s greatest desire was that the Colossians would ceaselessly, fervently, steadfastly pray for a door!  And so it is for us.  There is no greater spiritual exercise than prayer of all sorts, but especially prayer for doors.

Pray because when doors open, the impossible happens.  Paul’s urgent desire for open doors was directly connected to his experience of seeing God open doors.   This request for prayer in Colossians 4 is very similar to Paul’s request to the Thessalonican church in 2 Thessalonians 3:1  “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you.”  When God opens doors to His word, it runs freely without any impediment.   It moves and spreads rapidly.  Psalm 147:15 describes this free running of God’s word in beautiful language:  “He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.”  What promise!   Think of the children of Israel in bondage for 400 years, praying to God for relief.  Suddenly, the door opens, and God’s word of redemption through Moses runs swiftly, unimpeded by the magic of Pharaoh’s wizards, Pharaoh’s entire army and Pharaoh’s stubborn hard-heartedness.  Not even the Red Sea could prevent the word of God from running swiftly to the salvation of His people.

And Paul had experienced this same phenomenon.  In Acts 13, Paul had preached his heart out in the synagogue in Antioch, only to be completely rejected by the Jewish hearers, contradicting his word and blaspheming God.  But suddenly, the Gentiles heard the same word, and instead of rejecting and blaspheming, they glorified the word of the gospel of Christ.  They honored the word!  They believed the message of Christ, received it and were glad.  The word kept running swiftly, being published throughout the region!   Later, in recounting this experience in Acts 14:27, Paul’s only explanation was that God “had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.”

A careful reading of the book of Acts reveals that much of Paul’s preaching and labor was met with disappointment, rejection and personal suffering.  But he kept pressing on in the confidence that when God opened the door, the word would run swiftly with free course.  In Acts 16, he travels through Asia, seeking to preach the gospel of Christ.  At each stop, the Holy Spirit stops his efforts.   One can imagine how disappointing this must have felt.  “Lord, we are trying to exalt your Son, preach your gospel, and nothing is happening.”   But then as Paul slept one night, God opened the door to Macedonia, eventually resulting in the establishment of the church at Philippi.

It is also important to note that open doors don’t mean a smooth path.   Describing his ministry in Ephesus in I Corinthians 16:9, Paul said, “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.”   Both statements can and are often true at the same time.  Difficulty doesn’t mean that God is closing the door.  When God opened the door to the gospel in Ephesus, demons were cast out, the name of Jesus was magnified, many confessed sins, and the word of God mightily prevailed.  At the same time, Paul was opposed on every side, his life in constant jeopardy.  But the door was opened!

In our spiritually parched times, stories like we read in Acts probably seem like fairy tales.  We need to be reminded of what happens when God opens doors.  Vision and energy for praying for open doors for the gospel are fed from the marvel of seeing what happens when doors open.

Pray for a door of utterance.  Paul’s specific request to the Colossians was for a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ.  To any observer, this door had been slammed shut by Paul’s imprisonment.  But he didn’t see it that way.  He had a greater need than freedom.  He needed liberty to preach the gospel!   Christ was everything to Paul.  He had just written of the redemption of Christ, the sovereignty of Christ, the fulness of Christ, the treasure of wisdom and knowledge of Christ, the completeness in Christ, the hope of glory in Christ, the life in Christ, the peace of Christ.  To Paul, Christ is all and in all.  He saw no greater need than to have the mystery of Christ revealed to the elect of Christ.   And so he fervently desired opportunity to speak of Him and to speak of Him plainly.  Even if it meant speaking to his captors, he had no greater desire.  Surely there is something instructive for all of us in Paul’s desire.  We should pray fervently, continuously, steadfastly for God to open the door of opportunity for the gospel of Christ that Jesus might be made manifest and His word received gladly and glorified.

Pray because we don’t have the key to the door and it’s too big to budge.  God must open the door, the door of faith, the door of opportunity, and the door of utterance.  Fervency in prayer is directly connected to awareness of our insufficiency and God’s power.  If a man with the ability and experience of the apostle Paul was incapable of opening the door of faith, we certainly aren’t capable.  Paul’s confession in 2 Corinthians 4 is that we have the treasure of the gospel in earthen vessels, or brittle, fragile clay pots.  This is why his preaching did not include enticing words of man’s wisdom.  His desire was for the Spirit to move with power.  Preachers should regularly examine our own hearts to discern where our reliance for effectiveness is placed.  But God is not bound!  Revelation 3:7 speaks of God who can open doors that no man can shut.   No impediment exists for God.  Repeatedly in Scripture we are reminded that God will do His will, that none can stop Him.  Oh, what an encouragement to prayer!  As we encounter closed doors, we must resist the urge to self-pity and instead pour out our souls to the God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, and is determined to bring Himself glory.

Pray for open doors while turning the knob on every door.  Paul firmly believed that God must open doors.  But this conviction did not stop Paul from seeking open doors.  When God shut them, he would move on.  But he was constantly on the lookout for opportunities for the gospel of Christ.  His situation, as he writes Colossians, appears to be a closed door.  After all, he was in prison chains!   But his chains did not stop him from preaching.  The same was true while in the Philippian jail, or on trial before Agrippa, or any other time in his journey.  He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.  Believing the sovereignty of God in salvation frees us to look for opportunities literally everywhere we go while fully confident in the will of God to shut or open doors as He sees fit.

Pray because many hindrances block the door.  In Ephesus, there was Demetrius the silversmith, unbelieving Jews, a throng of angry people and a city full of demonic, illicit pagan worship.  In Rome, Paul was literally bound.  In Philippi, he was jailed.  We have many hindrances in our Western culture.  Sleepy Christians, an oppressive government, disinterested people…the list is seemingly endless.  So we must pray.  We must pray fervently, continuously, but also expectantly.   God has purposed to show the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy.  He does that as the door of faith is opened to receive the glorious mystery of Christ revealed to the heart.  Will you pray?