Perhaps so many doors are closed to us because we do not pray as we ought.

Colossians 4:2  Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 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.

Even though the prison door had closed on Paul, he didn’t see his opportunities as limited – because Paul knew no matter what men could do, the word of God could never be bound!

II Timothy 2:8  Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9  for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!

How often are we tempted to see the word of God as bound?

How often do we pray for God to open to us a door for the word?

How often do we not treasure the opportunities we have to speak God’s word?

How often do we ask God to open a door for the word?

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Matthew 6:6 (KJV)  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

When was the last time you entered into your closet, shut the door and prayed that God would open to you a door for the word?

Zechariah 12:10 (KJV) And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications…

Isaiah 62:6  On your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night
they shall never be silent.
You who put the LORD in remembrance,
take no rest,
7  and give him no rest
until he establishes Jerusalem…

Lord God, pour out on us a spirit of grace and supplications, so we might continue steadfastly in prayer. May we shut the door and enter into our closets in secret. May we keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking. May we not be silent. May we not hold our peace day or night. May we give You no rest until You establish Your Church and make us a praise in the earth once again. Your will for us is to be a glorious Church once again. Almighty and sovereign God, You alone can open the doors that are shut tightly. Creator God, You who made each ear, You alone can open the ears that are shut tightly. In and of ourselves, we have no power to open any door ourselves. In and of ourselves, we have no power to open any ears. Open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, that we might make it clear, which is how we ought to speak. For Your glory and the sake of Your Name we ask these things. Amen.

Related posts:

• Colossians 4:2-6
• Pour out on us a spirit of grace and supplications

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Dear friends in Christ,

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for me. (See my last update/prayer requests.)

I thank God that He has refreshed my soul. He has done that in numerous ways.

I had wonderful worship w/ some old friends over the weekend and then fellowship with some friends from our old church.

I’ve picked up in reading Iain Murray’s “Revival and Revivalism,” as well as rereading “George Whitefield’s Journals.” As soon as you begin to read things like that, your mind gets set once again on heavenly things and things of earth grow strangely dim. That has renewed and refueled my vision and passion to pray for revival and to continue to blog meaty stuff here.

I’ve continued to be blessed by the study of John in our BSF class. I only returned there in March and I am amazed (though shouldn’t really be) at how God is showing me so much new in those last chapters in John.

I love being outside and we have had a wonderful spring here, probably one of the earliest and nicest since I moved here in 1981. Walking and just sitting and reading/praying/contemplating/listening to music is a tonic to my soul. This is one of my favorite spots where I like to sit. It’s in a park about a mile from home. I walked there today… 

This second picture is a photo not from that same park, but from the UW-Arboretum…

I realized once again today how I must make time to worship with music daily. Though I listen to music a lot of the time, I must take time to really focus on the words and on the Lord and worship, just worship, rather than multi-task.

Finally, if you have unconfessed sin or are struggling with sin, you cannot have the joy of the Lord He intends. But once you recognize that sin and confess it and begin to do battle, the joy begins to flow. I had some sins and fears to deal with and God has helped me to come through those. (I’ve written about some of that here, here, here and here.) Once again I was dealing with my lust for public praise and needing to make war with that. I also have some things I’ve been contemplating about ministry which at first I found daunting, but God has allowed me to settle in and trust Him in those and ponder them in my heart for the time being and trust Him to show me what I need to know when I need to know it and to know that He never gives us more than He equips us to do.

I find it quite ironic that later on the same day I posted about making war on my desire for public recognition, TheologiansCafe rec’d my post Praying for Revelife (and your own blog). (I’d pulsed a link to that post earlier in the evening due to some concerns a fellow sister in Christ was having w/ Revelife; she rec’d it and TheoDan saw it and the rest is history…)

So, please, please, my friends, hit me over the head when I start to babble some sort of nonsense about recognition, etc., etc. (Or at least pray for me! Then hit me!) Recognition comes with its own headaches…I found that out again this time around, plus I thought I’d already learned my lesson last fall with the Revelife-Calvinism flap. *sigh* No different that James and John, am I?

As much as I am joking here, I do know this is an ongoing struggle for me. And I hate it. So I am trusting God will help me to glory in Him and rejoice in Him more and more and not to concern myself about the rest (Psalm 131). God is never going to bless my writing if I have mixed motives. I very much appreciate your prayers. I do know that over the past few days God has given me some sweet unexpected fruit of behind-the-scenes ministry to single souls. There is so much joy there! To see a single sheep lifted up by my words is so, so wonderful! There is way, way more joy in that than having 99 people visit one of my posts.

In addition to the requests I gave previously, tonight I’m asking you to pray for clear leading in my blogging on my naphtali_deer site. I will tell you that I have about 100 private posts there. Some of them will always stay private and some of them were already converted into public posts, but a vast majority are posts I’d begun at one time or another and put aside intending to post publicly eventually. It seems that with every day, I have ideas for at least a couple more blogs as well. Needless to say, this can be overwhelming at times. I really need ears to hear God’s voice so I might know what to post about on a particular day. I don’t want to be driven by the calendar or what I’m reading in Xanga/Revelife community or what’s happening there, and yet there are times I should be writing to do so.

Here are a few things I would like to write about and/or are in the queue:

Anyhow, there’s some of the list. I’m putting them down here, so I might actually remember…

Perhaps there’s something else God might have for me. I’m trusting He would show me that.

There are also some things I’d like to post here re: my vision for this site. I hope to do that soon, D.V.

If you have prayer requests you would like to share publicly here, please feel free to do so; otherwise, you can message them to me. My prayer is that we might encourage one another by our words here as well as uphold each other in prayer. Thank you for your friendship and fellowship in Christ.

Yours in Christ,
Karen