Opportunity generates movement or it’s just maintenance.
Sometimes opportunity comes to the dance of life as an ‘ugly duckling’! The opportunity to raise Lazarus from the dead seemed like an ‘ugly duckling’. ‘Should have been there sooner’, they thought. ‘Can’t do anything about it now’, they said. ‘Why didn’t we come four days ago’, the disciples debated.
Just when we think it’s too late, God makes a move. He did so at Lazarus’ burial site. Oh the gossip that Jesus didn’t listen to. Oh the shadows of Himself He didn’t slink into. Oh the movement He generated in the moment everyone else had written off.
Opportunities of the God-kind come packaged with enough movement to raise the dead. Opportunities thrill to the unexpected. Going through the motions has no life-giving rhythm. But when we keep His power stirred up within us, lookout. Opportunity is God’s playground. He knows how to love on that ‘ugly duckling of an idea’ that everyone else has crossed off the list.
Rewind the tape of all your broken dreams and you will find a silver lining. There is something in you waiting to be awakened. James writes without apology to those scattered by persecution:
Keep your hopes up and be patient. James 5:8 (PBT)
A former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom once defined genius as ‘prolonged patience’! Wrap that thought around what you’ve given up on. Jesus said at the grave site of Lazarus: ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. In the time His followers must have felt the most scattered, Jesus made a move. Lazarus was forced back into life. The game went into overtime.
James encouraged those living in persecution to be like the farmer who is patently waiting for the earth’s harvest.
Keep your hopes high and be patient. James5:8 (PBT)
Today’s take away: Opportunity generates movement. Life in scattered times is not about maintenance other than that of maintaining expectations in the face of setbacks. Never, never, never succumb to disappointment. Never allow what God has put in you to become the ‘ugly duckling’ of your life. Rejoice in what you can’t yet see by knowing that ‘the trying of your faith really stirs up power within you.’ Keep rejoicing in the opportunities God has shown you until they become reality. Leverage opportunity by rejoicing in what you can’t see. Rejoice in God and watch for movement.
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