Opportunity

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Isn’t it fantastic when someone walks up to you and says, “Hey, I’ve been watching you, and you’re a Christian right?”

“Yes, I am!” You respond.

“I knew it! What must I do to be saved?”

Yeah. Except that’s never actually happened to me. Certainly it does happen—Nicodemus, anyone?—but if you go through life waiting for people to come to you and ask questions, then you’re missing opportunities. As intimidating as it can be sometimes—especially for us ladies—listening to the Spirit and then boldly speaking up when we’re prompted by Him can be the most valuable opportunites you’ll ever have.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek (Romans 1:16)."

Two weeks ago, for example, I met a guy, and he was sharing with me about the rough year he’d had—between his mother’s death, his sister’s imprisonment, and his father’s motorcycle accident, it had been one long rollercoaster ride. Never once did God, faith, or religion enter into our conversation. But as he left to go grab something, the Holy Spirit worked on my heart, leading me to ask him how he was dealing with his loss.

“I don’t know how I would get through something like that without Jesus!” I exclaimed. “Do you know Him?”

He said that he did—and in the same breath supplied that he’d gone to church all his life, as if that were the reason. As we talked further, it became increasingly apparent to me that he did not personally know my Lord and Savior. And then, when he soliliquized about how the Bible teaches that everything should be in moderation—nothing is bad if it’s in moderation, the Holy Spirit again was leading me and speaking through me.

“Well, you know, Scripture doesn’t actually teach that. The Bible gives us God’s holy Law, which sets for a clear standard of morality for man, declaring what is right and what is wrong. We can’t keep the Law, which is what makes us sinners.”

I got no comment after that—and just as surely as God had led me to share Truth with this man, He was now saying that the seed had been sown and I should go no further today. Pray for Josh, trusting in Isaiah 55:11:

"So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
      It shall not return to Me void,
      But it shall accomplish what I please,
      And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

Only the very next day, I took Melanie to an astronomy presentation—the two of us walking into a room full of old, geeky guys was certainly an experience I’ll never forget! Mel graciously questioned a few of the lecturer’s facts on global warming and the “ozone hole” during the presentation, but afterwards, she would not leave until she got a chance to talk to the man, a former science teacher and current NASA ambassador. She engaged him by asking what he didn’t believe about the third day—where God put water on the earth, since he had addressed his hypothesis (and the general belief of NASA) that water had gotten on the earth through a comet.

From there, she challenged him on Truth and a Scriptural worldview in science, declaring that science could and does align with all of Scripture. I stood off to the side, wondering where this conversation was going, and if it would even do any good for a man so seemingly set in his evolutionary faith.

And then, “Can I share something personal with you?” he asked.

“Sure!” Melanie answered.

“I used to be a staunch Catholic—believed the Bible like you. My wife even converted to Catholicism when we got married. And then I went to college. It proved to me that science was right and the Bible was wrong, so I left the church.”

Pray for Les.

And this week, pray that God drops opportunities in your lap—that someone will come to you asking questions, hungry to know more about Jesus. Pray that your life brightens every corner you walk into you, so all who know you, know Jesus. Most importantly, however, pray that you are open and willing to speak and act as the Holy Spirit leads you, whether you can see an “opportunity” or not.

Photo Credit: Andre Vanrooyen
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson,
   Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.