2018: The Year of Open Doors

As we approach the mid-point of the year, most New Year’s resolutions are a faint and distant memory. High hopes for 2018 smacked into overloaded schedules and the realities of our daily To Do’s. Many of us are slogging into summer, yet we still muster hope for new opportunities and renewed purpose.

What if the remainder of this year could become a doorway to new opportunities for each one of us? What if 2018 could still become “The Year of Open Doors” for you?

The idea of a year possessing special meaning is nothing new. In Chinese culture, each year is themed on one of twelve zodiac animals, and many people still believe the characteristics of each animal impact the years and people they’re associated with.

Jewish culture too is rooted in “special years,” although today many of the customs have been set aside. According to the Old Testament, every seventh year was celebrated as a sabbatical year in which fields were left dormant and all debts were released (can I get an Amen!). And every 50th year was a Year of Jubilee––an entire year with no agricultural work (in an agricultural society), and a year during which all land reverted to its original owner and all indentured servants were set free. Now that’s worth celebrating!

In Western culture, we don’t corporately assign specific meaning to one year or another. Instead, we ring in each new year with a countdown, large gatherings with lots of good eats and drinks, and the annual resolution of better choices to induce new habits. Many of us also include prayers for new opportunities leading to new direction. But often we keep our prayers to ourselves as we wait on God.

Over the last few months, my prayers for “new doors of opportunity” to open have intensified.

I’ve been knocking, knocking, knocking but they remain closed. My doors are associated with my work in the “faith and work” space, and these are God-size doors that only He can open. Although I cannot do anything to open these new opportunities myself, the way I join God in this effort is to continue networking/equipping/knocking as I faithfully seek Him and lay these doors before Him.

A month ago, I enlisted several friends to begin praying with me.

I gave them a list of specific doors I’m knocking on and I asked them to join me in prayer for these doors to open. Then last week, my friend shared an article about 2018 being “the year of the open door.” Although I do not readily espouse contemporary prophesy, what came to mind was the idea of corporately recognizing this year as a “special year” and praying for open doors together as a community of Christ-followers. Even the apostle Paul recognized the significance of open doors when he wrote, “I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me” (1 Cor 16:8–9).

So what if, as the Body of Christ, we pray in unison each day for new doors to open––doors which, when opened, will bring glory to God?

What if we rejoice in God’s goodness and power, and His ability to open doors we can’t? What if we delight in God, His strategic plan, and the good work He prepared specifically for each one of us (Eph 2:10)? What if together we lay our requests for open doors on the altar as we worship Him? What if we faithfully approach the throne of grace each day together in prayer, and intercede for one another? What if each time we knock on one of our doors, we use our knocking as a prompt to pray for others who are also knocking on their doors?

What if 2018 becomes “Our Year of Open Doors”––a profoundly special year in the calendar of our lives? Are you in? I am!

I realize that confidentiality is often required when praying for our closed doors. But we can still be praying in unison because Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who also intercede for us before the Father (Rom 8:26, 34), know all the details! So, for anyone who wants to kneel together and inter-lock shields of faith, please let me know how I can be praying for you. For me, please pray for the 8 closed doors I’m laying before God.

Thank you, sisters and brothers, for jubilantly celebrating “The Year of Open Doors” through corporate prayer. I expectantly anticipate our joyful festivities at the end of the year––not to ring in another non-descript annum, but rather to praise God for all of the amazing new doors He opened June–December in “Our Year of Open Doors.” I can’t wait to share our details of all that God did!

Until then… PRAISE and AMEN!!!

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