North Central District 

The Open Door

Behold, I have set before thee an open door.--Rev. 3:8

There is nothing more stirring and pleasant than to feel that  life has good things ahead.  On the other hand, there is nothing more depressing, more unnerving, than to feel that life holds nothing in store for you.  "Is life over for me?" was the question that one who had grown weary by the way asked of a friend and counselor.  The answer is found in that immortal promise to the church at Philadelphia, "Behold, I have set before thee an open door."  Life is never over for those who follow Jesus.

This is grandly true of you.  You have the incomparable chance of youth; you have the opportunity to learn life's great purposes, to learn how to do good.  The door is wide open now.  Five years from now it will be a little less wide open.  In middle life it will be half shut.  A little later it will be three-quarters shut, and then, at length, so far as the opportunity to be good and do good in this world, the door will be closed.  Therefore, enter it now.  "Work,...for the night cometh."

But this is a promise of opportunity which speaks not only to youth, but to those in every period of life.  It has a great meaning for those who are conscious of past mistakes and omissions.  Even the most thoughtful and careful will recall doors which they passed by, opportunities to speak for God and the truth, to warn someone in peril, to encourage and help a troubled soul.  But God opens another door.  He gives us another chance.

LORD, we thank Thee for the open door, for the second chance.  We know that Thy Spirit will not always strive with us, but that so long as there is a spark of yearning in our hearts for Thee, or one chance of winning us from sin, Thou wilt keep the door of repentance open to us.  Make us, then, eager to accept the second chance, to begin the new life in Thee. Amen.