Missed Opportunities

Earlier this week I was driving my children to their respective destinations. As I was approaching a red light, I noticed a car coming out from a side road that was trying to merge into traffic. I stopped at a significant distance from the light to hold the traffic behind me so they could come out. I waited and I waited and they just continued to sit there. Eventually the light turned green and I had to go. As soon as I passed by, I noticed their head was completely down. I have no way of knowing for sure, but it’s likely they were on their phone. When I looked back in my rear view mirror, I noticed they started inching up. By then it was too late. Traffic was flowing in front of them non-stop. They would have to wait until everyone passed them by or until the next window of opportunity presented itself.

How many of us have done this in our everyday lives? We allow ourselves to be distracted and end up missing out on so many opportunities. We have someone show us favor and we don’t even recognize it because we don’t expect it and we certainly aren’t looking for it. Often times we receive exactly what we expect and we see only what we’re looking for. If we aren’t expecting anything supernatural and we aren’t looking for anything of eternal value, then by default we’re going to miss out on Kingdom opportunities.

So many times we feel like we’re stuck when we probably could have been moving forward had we not been oblivious to all the doors of opportunity God has opened to us. The Bible tells us of many opportunities that are available to us but we continuously miss out on so many of them. A lot of these opportunities we miss because we’re unaware of them if we’re not reading the Word for ourselves and other opportunities are being missed simply because we aren’t applying the Word we already know.

Sometimes opportunities are missed because they come disguised as responsibilities. There are certain doors that can only be opened with the key of responsibility. The Bible is full of these. There are so many things God has promised to us that we will never receive because we refuse to do what He has instructed us to do in order for us to receive them.

It’s usually at this point that we get tempted to rely on our own strength. When we get tired of waiting, we sometimes end up attempting to force our way which can leave us feeling overwhelmed, disappointed or hurt. Although we probably still end up making it to our destination at some point, we often times arrive later than we needed to and more frustrated than we had to be. 

When opportunity comes knocking at our door, we need to be available to answer it. We need to remove any distractions that would cause us to be looking down when we need to be looking up. Opportunity is just that… opportunity. It only adds value to our lives and others when we take advantage of it.

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