OPPORTUNIDAY
Jeff Germo
January 25, 2016
Opportuniday
Last week I had a dream in which I coined a new word; OPPORTUNIDAY. In my dream I was thinking, “This is brilliant. I must remember this. How can I remember it without waking up and wrecking my beauty sleep?” I must admit it sounded much more profound in my dream than it did once I had woken up and remembered it while in the shower.
In thinking about it more in the context of a life of learning to walk with Jesus it made perfect sense. If we could go into each day as an OPPORTUNIDAY life would make sense. I have said many times that the main lesson for the Christ-follower is learning to trust God in deeper ways.
In The Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught his followers this very thing. Matthew 6 is a perfect example of this. Read the whole chapter. It’s all about learning to trust. “Consider the lilies…” “Consider the birds…” Our heavenly Father takes care of them. They don’t worry. They live. They go about their business in the way God ordained for them. They just do it.
Matthew 6:31–33 (NLT)
31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."
God wants us to trust him. Do we believe he is trustworthy? When we choose to not trust God and take matters into our own hands, or complain about our lot in life, we relegate ourselves to wandering until we learn the lesson. Think back to the Israelites in the Old Testament. Forty years of wandering because they chose to distrust what God told them.
God doesn’t make you wander to punish you. His goal for you is that you would rest in him. Stop clawing and clambering and striving to justify your existence. Enter each day as an opportunity. Each obstacle, each trial, each person you label as a pain-in-the-butt is an opportunity for grow in your trust of God. Learn to walk with Jesus. “Consider the lilies…and the birds..."
Think of each day as an OPPORTUNIDAY. In this day I get to grow. The only way growth happens is if I respond well to the opportunities I am given to practice trusting God. I have to admit, it is not an easy lesson. And just when I think I’ve learned it I get stretched a little more with another opportunity. But, as I successfully walk with Jesus through the storms I begin to learn that it is worth it.
James 1:2–4 (NLT)
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.