Opportunities

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"Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity." (Colossians 4:5)

One day, I was praying to God for an opportunity to connect with a Muslim and start a new friendship. Earlier, I had walked past a few Arabic looking guys, but I simply said 'hello' and moved on. So I asked God to give me a 'second chance', another opportunity.

I parked my car in Westfield and walked towards the centre entrance. I noticed a man and his son loading things into their car. I was 80% sure that he was a Muslim from Saudi Arabia. I walked towards him, praying that somehow an opportunity would come up. I made eye contact with him and smiled. Then he looked at me and said, "Excuse me. Can you please help me? I have a bad back." Then I asked him, "Where are you from, brother?" To my excitement, he said, "Saudi Arabia"! So I shook his hand and exchanged a few Arabic greetings with him. He told me that he's currently studying a Masters degree at university. So I asked him, "Do you know my friend X? He's also an international student from Saudi Arabia. He's one of my English students." We eventually worked out that he was a mutual friend of ours! In the end, we exchanged phone numbers and I invited him to join us for coffee next time. 

In Colossians, Paul calls believers to "make the most of every opportunity". I think he had at least two things in mind: (1) To live our lives in such a way that makes the gospel attractive to outsiders (see Colossians 3). This means living a holy life according to God's standard, a life that is different to the world's standard. (2) To speak up about our faith and to proclaim the gospel of Christ (see Colossians 4:1-6). This means being prepared to testify about why we follow Jesus.  

Here are three steps we need to take, in order to make the most of every opportunity:

  1. Pray - We need to pray and ask God to open doors and give us opportunities to serve people and to speak into their lives. Only God can set up these "divine appointments" for us.
  2. Be intentional - We need to always have our eyes open to see the potential that exists in every moment that we find ourselves in. We need to be switched on 24/7 for God's mission.
  3. Let go - We need to let go of all the selfish things that will hinder us from making the most of every opportunity: our time, our money, our energy, our personal goals, our fears and our pride.

May God open many doors for us as we intentionally seek out opportunities to do good and speak grace.