Don’t Waste an Opportunity

The cover picture for this article is from a new movie release about some men who decided to take the opportunity to do the courageous thing and challenge a terrorist on a french high-speed train. The possibilities of them dying was more than real, but the opportunity to make a difference was theirs to use or throw away.

It is so easy to live life with a “Chance” mentality instead of living life as God intended.

It has been said that time waits for no man, and I believe that is true. Each of us have 24 hours in a day, yet we don’t know how many days we are allotted. Some people believe that when your “Number” is up you’re done. Others believe that your life is in your hands to do with as you please.

For me, life is both a combination of choices and powers working to get us to different destinations. After giving my life to Christ when I was 18 years old, I could trace back in my short life where God had intervened to get my attention about his existence and his desire to be God in my life. In all those “Coincidences” God was trying to communicate, but in most cases I wasn’t listening. Then there are the actions of Satan that weaved through my life to entrap me in rebellion so I would never trust God with anything. Finally there are others in my past, both good and bad, who tried to influence me in one way or the other. All these influences driving me to different conclusions in life. Some I recognized and some I didn’t…….until I came face to face with the living God.

Before becoming a Christian, I learned very quickly I could lie and cheat my way through life. I learned this understanding through my parents who did not know the Lord and stayed far away from his influences. I learned that if something seemed unfair, I could adjust the unfairness by cheating the system. When you don’t have much of a moral base from your parents, you grow up justifying almost anything while claiming to be in the right. So many kids today are being raised with an amoral mentality. Have you ever heard of situational ethics?  It is defined as “flexibility in the application of moral law according to circumstance”. In a nut shell, your morality is not based on firm absolutes, but only on whatever is happening. You don’t lie ordinarily, you don’t steal ordinarily, you don’t kill ordinarily. It all depends on circumstances.

After becoming a Christian I learned that God has a standard which I can choose to make mine or I can choose to violate at will. With each choice we define who we are in Christ.

Galatians 6:7-10         Making Room for the Spirit of God

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

This standard God reveals in the scripture is meant for the common good of ourselves and others. In order for us to be persuaded to embrace this standard, he developed the reality of the law of sowing and reaping. If you plant dishonesty in your life you reap lies. If you plant theft in your life you suffer loss, and this includes people who say they are Christians. The law of sowing and reaping is a universal law of rewards and punishment system meant to encourage good behavior and dissuade bad behavior. We can still chose how we want to live, but there are consequences. Let me say with this law it affect both Christian and non-believer the same.

Ephesians 4:27           Making Room for Satan

Do not give the devil an opportunity. 

The apostle Paul says that it’s within our power to either use our opportunities well or throw them away like trash. Each choice has its rewards. Paul is trying to make us aware that as much as God desires to give us opportunity so does Satan. The one we follow is the result we build for ourselves.

Colossians 4:5            Making Room for Divine Opportunity

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 

Finally, Paul says we should make the most of every opportunity. If we fail to act, the opportunity is often lost forever regardless of God being the one who set up the opportunity for us.

Proverbs 13:4          Making room for our souls

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, But the soul of the diligent is made fat.

Going back to the beginning of this article I talked about four brave men who challenged a terrorist on a train bound for Paris. The terrorist had an AK-47 and 300 rounds of ammunition, a pistol and a box cutter. He had enough destruction to kill everyone on that train. Yet these three young Americans stood up to evil because they had an opportunity to do so. They changed the lives of everyone on that train.

When making the movie, director Clint Eastwood decided to do a very rare thing. He asked the men to play themselves in the film. When they decided to do it they wanted to get some acting lessons but Mr Eastwood said no. He wanted the truth to come out real and raw even if it meant not looking professional.

In the film they spent a good portion of time exposing these three guys going up together and getting into a lot of trouble as boy. The reason for this was to show how heroes are made, which often has lots of twists in the journey. Teachers and principals never expected these boys to amount to anything in life and it almost appeared to end that way…..until the guys told the press they wanted communicate a positive message in the movie, namely that, “God has a plan for each of us and everyone has it in them to do the “Extraordinary“.

Questions:

Are you letting God direct your journey or just living by chance? Today would be a good day to make a change.

Will you live as if God is preparing you for a divine encounter where you can make a difference or are you squandering your opportunities? Only you can make the choices needed to walk into your divine calling.

May God grant us insight to live above pessimism.

Pastor Dale