My First Open Door
I forget where I first heard the verse, but I certainly remember the first time I experienced it. Somewhere in my mid-teen years, I took Col. 4:2 literally. “Pray for me too that God may open a door for his message.” From this verse, I understood that I could ask God to open a “door of opportunity,” an opportunity to naturally share my faith. It was as if God was doing two things: drawing the world to himself and asking for volunteers to share his message. Those who ask God for open doors are bumped up beside those who are actively searching.
It was during a “spare period” in high school where I first asked God to open a door. We were playing cards to kill the time and I was overwhelmed with the idea that I had never really shared my faith. So I asked under my breath, waited, then when nothing happened so I continued to play cards.
About 20 minutes later a student came into the cafeteria and shouted my name. “Dave Overholt!”
I had no idea who he was, but I smiled and waved. He came running over told me his name was Tom and talked about us being best friends. After trying to fake it for awhile I finally admitted, “Where do I know you from?”
“We were best friends in kindergarten!” he smiled back.
Wow, this guy needed a friend! He went on to tell me he had moved to a city four hours away when he was young and His family had just moved back. This was his first day at his new school and I “happened” to be the first person he met. Weird coincident!
Just to be nice I asked him what he was into. He replied, “I am into history and religion. I am actually writing up my own religion. Are you into Religion Dave?”
Dang! This was it! I asked God to open a door to share my faith and he did! But I wasn’t ready! I didn’t know what to say!! My heart was racing, I started to sweat. In what seemed to me to be ten minutes of staring at him, I replied, “Ya I am into religion.” My first time of witnessing!!
“Great, Dave,” He continued, “Do you want to come over to my house and we can talk all about it?
We got together, I brought over a booklet called, “More Than a Carpenter,” and we talked into the night about his background, his weird mixing of religions and Jesus. Three months later Tom accepted Christ as his Saviour. From then on I was hooked. I understood that partnering with the Spirit of God to share my faith was a whole lot easier than anything I had ever imagined, and it actually helped people into the kingdom.
The spiritual life is so much easier in partnership with the Holy Spirit. I have been praying this simple prayer for decades now, “Father could you please open a door of opportunity for me to share my faith,” and the adventures continue.
Dave Overholt 
I liked this comment: “Those who ask God for open doors are bumped up beside those who are actively searching.” Cool way to think about it!