JUNE 27, 2013 · 7:35 AM ↓ How To Make the Most of Your Opportunities A young lady once consulted with her preacher. “I cannot stick it out any longer. I’m the only Christian where I work. I get nothing but taunts and sneers. It’s more than I can stand. I’m quitting.” ” “Will you tell me,” asked the minister, “where lights are placed?” “What has that to do with it?” she reacted rather bluntly. “Never mind,” the minister replied. “Answer my question: ‘Where are lights placed?’ “ “I suppose in dark places,” she responded. “Yes, and that is why you have been put in that place where there is such spiritual darkness. You’re there to shine for the Lord.” The young Christian realized for the first time the opportunity that was hers. She felt she could not fail God by allowing her light to go out. She went back to the workplace with renewed determination to let her light shine in that dark corner. In time, she was the means of leading nine other girls to the Light. Opportunities are all around us. Sometimes where we least expect them. In unlikely places. Difficult places. Even dark places. Opportunities to do good. To serve God. To minister to other people. This is the third of three posts based on Ephesians 5:15-17. “Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” In order for us to make the most of our opportunities, we need to do three things. (1) We Need to Seek Opportunity. Jesus said “seek and you shall find” Yet, what are we seeking? Some seek easy. Wealth. Prestige. Or acceptance. We attract what we think about. What we are looking for. What we are trying to obtain? Paul exhorted, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Gal. 6:10). A fair question for Christians is this: Are you seeking opportunities to do good? (2) We Need to See Opportunity. Jesus saw an opportunity to share His message with an immoral Samaritan woman where he stopped for a drink of water. She was amazed that he would even talk to her. Yet the conversion lead to her acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. And she shared it with others. When the apostles returned from town they were also astounded. Jesus’ response to them is appropriate for us today. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. (Jn 4:35) J Oswald Sanders put it this way, “Eyes that look are common, eyes that see are rare.” If we are to be successful spiritually, we need to open our eyes. Really see. Visualize the opportunities around us to do good. And share the gospel message. What opportunities do you see? (3) We Need to Seize the Opportunity. It’s not enough to seek opportunity or even to see it, we must seize it. Jonathan Winters said, “I couldn’t wait for success, so I went ahead without it” How often have we had an opportunity just slip through our fingers? Knowing and realizing are not enough. We are called upon to act. To follow through. To do something. Seizing opportunities calls for courage, demands confidence, and requires passion. And of course, seizing opportunity involves work. “Opportunity is missed by most people,” once observed Thomas Edison, “Because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” In the days before modern harbors, a ship had to wait for the flood tide before it could make it to port. The term for this situation in Latin was ob portu, that is, a ship standing over off a port, waiting for the moment when it could ride the turn of the tide to harbor. The English word opportunity is derived from this original meaning. The captain and the crew were ready and waiting for that one moment for they knew that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in. Shakespeare turned this background of the exact meaning of opportunity into one of his most famous passages. It’s from Julius Caesar. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. Don’t miss the high tide of opportunities. Seek them. See them. Seize them. –Ken Weliever, The Preacherman
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:07:39 +0000
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