{"id":40785,"date":"2026-06-30T22:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=40785"},"modified":"2026-06-29T19:24:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T02:24:39","slug":"26-0701","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/26-0701\/","title":{"rendered":"An Open Door to God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\">by Max Lucado<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-40786 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/260701_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/260701_1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/260701_1-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A lot of us make unnecessary messes, but we can change that. May I make a suggestion? Before you face the world, face your Father.<\/p>\n<p>Take this pocket prayer:\u00a0<em>Father\u2026You are good. Your heart is good.<\/em>\u00a0Your words come slowly at first, but stay at it.\u00a0<em>You are always right. The weather\u2019s bad, the economy is bad, but God, you are awesome.<\/em>\u00a0Don\u2019t underestimate the power of this moment. You just opened the door to God and welcomed truth to enter your heart. Who knows, you might even start to worship.<\/p>\n<p>Is your world different because you prayed? In one sense, no. But you are different. You have peace; you\u2019ve talked to your Father. Here\u2019s my challenge for you: every day for four weeks pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-40565\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1-unnamed-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"188\" height=\"300\" \/>\u00a0 \u00a0Read more\u00a0<a title=\"Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer\" href=\"https:\/\/maxlucado.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=bed511e434184985961d50fcb&amp;id=c9668dc127&amp;e=0716428f80\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/maxlucado.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u%3Dbed511e434184985961d50fcb%26id%3Dc9668dc127%26e%3D0716428f80&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1780708342826000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3_JhZBG08V_1_JUTXCvTKQ\"><em>Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of us make unnecessary messes, but we can change that. May I make a suggestion? Before you face the world, face your Father.<\/p>\n<p>Take this pocket prayer: Father\u2026You are good. Your heart is good. Your words come slowly at first, but stay at it. You are always right. The weather\u2019s bad, the economy is bad, but God, you are awesome. Don\u2019t underestimate the power of this moment. You just opened the door to God and welcomed truth to enter your heart. Who knows, you might even start to worship.<\/p>\n<p>Is your world different because you prayed? In one sense, no. But you are different. You have peace; you\u2019ve talked to your Father. Here\u2019s my challenge for you: every day for four weeks pray four minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-upwords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40787,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40785\/revisions\/40787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}