Taking The Opportunity

Life has chances we sometimes throw to the wind. It has things that it places before us and beckons us to take a hold of and all we do is to let these things slip through our hands. Have you ever wondered why we do this? Have you ever wondered why every time an opportunity comes your way, you just cannot make up your mind? Well, even in the days of old, people simply let things happen the way they felt they should and did not struggle to have the best in life.



Think of Lot. He had the choice between the arid and dry land and the beautiful land of Sodom. He looked and saw all the beauty that Sodom had for him and felt it was not of any use if he stayed on with his uncle Abraham. I don't know if this was God's way of telling him to get off Abraham's own promised life. But, I also believe God wants to show us something through Lot's decision to decend to the land where abomination was at its height. Lot had to pay the price for refusing the opportunity to stay on as an apprentice in the faith of Abraham. He rejected the best offer, that life must not always be beautiful if we are going to have the best of it at the end. He loses his wife (who turns into a pillar of stone) and his daughers sleep with him(in the name of having sons so they can be recognised as women.) The daughetrs' act led to the most promiscuous of nations Moab and Amon.



Think then of Gehazi. He had lived with Elisha for a really long time to understand that God's ways cannot at all be man's ways. He saw the great things that God had done through the prophet. He saw all the beauty of the hand of God. Yet, one time he takes the opportunity to stael from a man. He decides that what he's learnt over the years is not as precious as a few gifts and money. He saw in his master madness when he rejects any offer to be rich. He thus chooses to follow the way of every carnal human being and does not listen to the voice of God. In his stupidity, like Sarah did when asked about her laughter, he said he's not gone anywhere, but it was too late, the prophet had seen it all. Naaman's sickness dwelt on his body there and then.



These are examples of men that failed to realise that God had put people in their lives so they would be better. it is like an apprentice who fails the test when time is almost up for him to begin his trade. God does not look at where we are coming form. Yes, we have accomplished a lot for Him, but what is the state of our minds when He lets us have a simple choice between what He wants us to do and what He strongly detests. The apprentices in Lot and Gehazi failed because they looked at the moment. They did not see that God wanted them to get to the end of the practical lessons in life. Gehazi might have realised that the widow in Shunem needed a child. He however failed to realise that God wanted no payment for a simle miracle that He'd performed. Lot had seen the love and favour of God upon Abraham, he may have moved with him from the time he was called to leave his father's house. However, he failed to see that in times of aridity, God alone can multiply us. For me, this is failure of a test. It means the apprentice is not ready to be commissioned. It means all the years of hard work have gone to the wind. It actually means the opportui=nity to be better has been lost FOREVER.



Now think again. Vashti defies her husband because she's too proud to be made a laughing stock before the drunk guests of Ahasuerus. I understand this was really way out of order, but you have to listen to your husband and not humiliate him in public. Vashti decided it was time up for her to be queen over Persia and God opened a way for Esther. She decided to drop her name Hadassa and passed for a persian. When her time to save Israel came, she took the advice of her uncle Mordecai to do what God had set in her heart. I am moved to the determination of Esther in exposing the plot of Haman. When she says "If I perish, I perish" she actually means she is willing to take the opportunity and risks involved with it to see what she can do for her people. Esther in choosing the right thing saved Israel, saved the Persian kingdom and led to the festival of Purim. Gpd could not have been that damn to let us see the story of such a brave woman. Her name Hadassah which means myrtle moves to become Esther to mean star. She was a star in every sense of it.



One of the women that amaze me is Ruth. Her boldness made her become one of the great grandmothers of Jesus. Through a Moabitess, God opened the way for humanity. Her word to her mother-in-law "I will go with you wherever you go. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God" always make me realise how we are playing with our own Christianity. The truth about Ruth is that she was willing to go furhter than her sister-in-law. She was willing to take the risk. When it came to getting Boaz, she was willing to do all that Naomi told her to do. She simply took up the chance as it came and God blessed her faith anf faithfulness.



I love David, Gideon, Jephthah, Rahab and the spies, Moses, Daniel, Elisha on the road to the loss of his master, Nehemiah, Ezra, Mary, Elizabeth, Paul and most of all Jesus. I ove the courage with which they stood for what they believed to be right. God did not let them down. The thing is really that each of us is faced with challenges. God wants us to take a step that will not hurt our relationship with Him. He wants us to dare Him to see if He will not deliver. He wants us to understand that even the life we have is an opportunity to serve Him the best way we can. He actually wants us to get the chance to be childrenof the light. If Lot had taken the arid land, who knows, his end would have been a lovely one. Who knows if Gehazi had been contented with what he had and contended for the kingdom and will of God, he may have been like Elisha had been with Elijah. Esther could have chosen to stay in the comfort zones of the palace. That would never have saved her if Israel were to be wiped off the face of earth. Truh had a choce to heed her mother-in-law's voice and if he hadn't, maybe Boaz would never have married and maybe Jesus would never have come down to us.

In all this, people chose what chances to take. The strength in anything is not just the test that comes with it, but the opportunity that God gives when we find ourselves at the crossroads. What do you do when you have to choose between a well paying job and a better paying one? Do you run for the better one without calculating the costs? What do you do when you are bugged by many ladies or gents coming down your path? Do you give in to their desires or do you keep pure? Has God given you the chance to chooses between the base and the higher, the physical and the spitirual? Have you chosen wisely so you can be sure you'll be happy and contented at the end of it all? That is what life offers. When any opportunity comes before us, let us choose the maker of heaven and earth. He alone knows the destinies that are before us. If we use our wisdom to make choices, we shall be shocked at how things will turn out to be. If we look at the starting point of everything in life, we shall certainly get to where He wants us to be. After all, God's favour comes with blessings and riches and there is no sorrow added to it (paraphrase). Look up and be glad you are where He wnts you to be.

If chance knocks at your door, forget the proverb that it only comes once. God alnoe can have the best chances and these certainly will be better. Never wallow in the depression of having made the wrong choice yet you knew the right one. God cannot go wrong. Let Esther and Ruth and all the others show you, the apprentice, what to do!

Lots of God's blessings.