Faith-bearing Seed for the Soul
"While the earth remaineth,
Seedtime and harvest
....shall not cease"

Genesis 8:22

Opening Doors...

I thought about an incident that happened years ago and thought that I should write about it...then, I changed my mind until a good friend told me a similar story...I feel sure that there is someone  that needs to hear this. In fact, it speaks to a situation in my own life about getting my books published. I'd better listen up! Haha!

My mother called me to come to the shopping mall to get her. She had lost her car keys. She drove a Chevrolet and I drove an old Plymouth car...not both made by the same auto manufacturer, which was significant. As we approached her car, my mother said, "Let's try your key to see if it will open my door." I thought, yeah, right, mom...but if it will make you happy, I'll try it! Well, what do you know...my car key opened her car door! Now she was eager to try it in the ignition to see if it would start her vehicle. Well, everybody knows that the door key differs from the ignition key, right?... Uh, everyone except for my mom! As she turned the key, her car started! Impossible! Except for one thing...she prayed!

My friend told me that this morning he was carrying a bunch of items into a building that he didn't have an access card to...As he walked up to the door he prayed..."Lord, I know that You will open this door for me..." Without putting a card in it, he pulled on the handle, and the door opened...when bringing the second load through the door and praying the same way, the supposed-to-be-locked door opened again for him. A coworker with a card for the building helped him carry in the third load of items...as he pulled on the door, it didn't open...he had to use his card to open it. He said that he deliberately didn't pray the third time to confirm that it was God who had opened the door for him the other two times. Was it just a COINCIDENCE that the door opened twice (after praying) without a card, and then it wouldn't open the third time when he didn't pray? Not at all...God was proving to my friend how powerful He really is, and confirming His power.

Sometimes we expect God to open doors for us without our being willing to pray about them, and without our doing our small part of acting in faith. As it was with my mother, she was willing to go AGAINST THE ODDS...she BELIEVED that my key could work, and she acted upon it by trying the key. I stood back in cynical doubt. My friend had even greater faith...he didn't even use the key card...he expected God to unlock the door for him, and God did! He told me that, through this incident, he realized HOW WILLING God is to open doors for us if we are just willing to ask and expect Him to do so, and then follow through. God can unlock a door, but unless we reach up in faith expecting it to opened, we may never know it. This is a simple fact, but faith has to be acted upon or it is incomplete.

James 2:17, 18

...Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

(Cont.) vs. 24-26

You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

What door do you need opened? Pray and ask God to open it, THEN expect to DO what is necessary to go through it. I've heard some ministers call this "putting a handle on your faith." Whatever you want to call it...just don't knock and stand there...reach up and turn the knob, expecting that God has answered your prayer and unlocked the door. The key to unlocking the door is prayer...we turn the knob  by acting on the faith we prayed in.

Matthew 16:19 LB

"And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever doors you lock on earth shall be locked in heaven; and whatever doors you open on earth shall be open in heaven!"

Rooted and grounded in the love of Christ Jesus,

Marlene JuHaros,

Texas Seed Sower

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Eccl. 11:6

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