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Colossians 4 Praying for Doors to Open

by fol CHURCH on August 08, 2022

Paul finishes his letter to the church in Colossae by calling the church to prayer and outreach. We have seen how, in this letter, Paul is constantly reminding the church to centre on Jesus and not choose a Gospel that places Jesus alongside other things. If Jesus is, as Paul suggests, the ‘image of the invisible God’ bringing us to ‘fullness’ of life then surely we are going to want to share our needs with Him, and tell others of Him. In the close of the letter, Paul offers one personal prayer request: ‘That God may open a door for our message…’ (v.3). This is a really helpful way of viewing our conversations with friends who do not yet know Jesus. All we can do is look for doors to push, but it’s only going to be through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit, that doors will eventually open. And we are to nudge these doors gently. Paul instructs the believers to let their conversations be ‘full of grace’, suggesting they are to be people who listen, who love, and are generous with their time and hospitality. But we are to be salty people too! To be ‘seasoned with salt’ suggests that there has to be something of Jesus; the way, the truth, and the life, in us. After spending a bit of time with us, people should sense there is something different about the way we conduct ourselves, perhaps detecting a hint of salt in the conversation that suggests we might know something about finding purpose, meaning and life in its fullness. In these gracefully salty conversations it may well be that, in time, a door may open for us to ‘proclaim the mystery of Christ’.

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Questions:

  1. Take a moment to consider if your conversations with those outside the faith have the right balance of grace and salt?
  2. Who are the 3-5 people who do not yet know Jesus that you regularly find yourself in conversation with. Write their names down and pray for them throughout this week.

Prayer/Thought/Action:

Lord Jesus, I lift before you these people whom you have brought into my life. Let my conversations be always full of grace and seasoned with salt so that doors may open and the light of Jesus might come in. Amen.

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