¹⁰ I rejoiced in the Lord greatly because once again you renewed your care for me. You were, in fact, concerned about me but lacked the opportunity to show it. (Philippians 4:10 CSB)

How often do our brothers and sisters desire to help us out? Quite frequently I suspect, but do we leave an opening for them to do so.

Look, I get it, I am not one to quickly call upon others. I have spent a lot of time in personal pain and anguish not wanting to burden others with what I have going on. However, that does not leave much room for others to bless us. It does not give them the opportunity to intercede on our behalf and it may burden our families unduly.

Close brothers and sisters in the faith can shore us up in difficult times just as much as they can celebrate with us in the good times. I know this is what I desire from those around me. Give me an opening so I can be there for you. Call upon me in your time of need.

Furthermore, we need to leave room for God to work. If we are striving to constantly be the one to fix everything, where is there an opening for God to work. Here too I must confess I struggle. I am a man of action and I feel like motion is the best counter for difficult times. But I was recently given a clear example where backing off and opening the door for God to work opened what seems like a perfect door for me. I got out of my own way and this was not easy.

Stepping back and not rushing forward so that we might see the hand of God more in our lives. This does not mean that we stop acting all together. No, we have a powerful role in leaving an opening and that is filling it with prayer. When we are on our knees we are opening a conduit directly to God and giving Him full rein to act.