Opportunity says- you are able, you can, go for it, now is the time, this is your time, move now. Opposition says- you will never be able, you can’t, you won’t, this just isn’t the time, this is impossible, not now, you’re not smart enough, you don’t have the education, you’re too young, you’re to old, just stay put, this is probably meant for someone else.
When I think about opportunity and opposition one of the first things that come to mind is the phrase “today is the day of salvation”. Simply stated it is just reminding us that we are not promised another hour. We need to take the opportunity while we have it. As men it is no new thing under the sun to wrestle with opportunity and opposition. It seems that as a Christian it is the spice of life. Take for instance our work places. When given the opportunity for advancement, we are often met with more reasons why we shouldn’t than why we should. More people will tell us all the reasons it is a bad idea before they will ever give you encouragement to do so. You say, “Well, that’s because we live in a negative society.” But as Christians, that is not the way we are suppose to view things. It amuses me when I hear myself start to complain about having to do something extra that I wasn’t aware of while trying to complete a task. Everything has a price. In life there are no set prices on anything. What may have cost you little, could cost the next person everything. There are no set prices on your health for instance. Some are very fortunate and never have issues with their health while others struggle with just trying to get healthy. What I’m trying to say is the price for opportunity is the opposition. I have a few hobbies I would love to take part in daily but my opposition is time to do so. If I want to enjoy one, I must learn to accept the opposition of the other. I’ve been thinking about the life of King David and how his road to being King was filled with opportunity and opposition. Take a moment and think about when David was anointed By Samuel. When God told Samuel to go to the house of Jesse in 1 Sam chapter 16, he told them that He had provided a king among Jesse’s sons. The opportunity to anoint a new king had been given to Samuel. The opposition was which son. He had to go through them all and then ask if there were any more. Finally, the last one that Jesse thought would ever be king material was brought from the pasture. David was youngest and smallest of the bunch. What if Samuel had given in to the opposition and just said to heck with this and anointed the oldest out of tradition instead of waiting on God to show him the right one? We might be reading a very different story.
It is of the most importance that we renew our minds daily for what God has for us will probably never look as we imagined it. Many times, in the book of Psalms we find David crying out to the lord to save him and finish by encouraging himself and reminding himself who he serves.
Psalms 116:1-2 NKJV I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
Psalms 18:18 NKJV They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the Lord was my support.
Some often look at opportunity as a curse. This is the mindset that the enemy would have you keep. It goes right along with the oppressing spirit of the enemy. Many are just plain scared of opposition of any kind. We tend to look at it as an argument we don’t want to have. Or maybe, drama we don’t want, some type of major conflict. The fact is that anything you do in this world will always have opposition of some sort. When you got out of bed today gravity met you first thing and tried to hold you down when you stood up. You made it this far today so I will assume you overcame the opposition of gravity’s plot to keep you from standing up. We must stop defeating ourselves before we ever start. You have the mind of Christ. You were created for just a time as this. Greater is He that is in you that he that is in the world. You have been set up to be an over comer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony. Many a prophet has longed to see what you are seeing today and experience what you are today. We must take every opportunity to see the Kingdom of God advanced on every front for the opposition only allows us to gain wisdom and knowledge thru experience to allow the next opportunity to be greater than the last. There are doors and fences that are waiting on you to unlock them for the next generation. Keys that only you have been given by the grace of God for the doors of opportunity that you were designed to open for others. We have spent decades building new connections and life lines of opportunity in ministry around the world because of many a man that wasn’t where he was suppose to be to do what he was suppose to do because he did not take the opportunity for fear of the opposition. The Kingdom of God will not be undone. We have suffered setback at the hands of fear tactics of the enemy but never will God allow it to be stopped. What we fail to see in our finite minds is that the Kingdom of God will go forth no matter if we move with it or not. We must lose the mentality that we have some importance that allows us to dictate a matter and realize that God has a plan, a plan to use and further us to advance His kingdom to save us all as a whole, the bride, the body of the Church. Not the individual of the finite self. Our jobs are not to dictate what it is that feels the best to us or what gets us the greatest gain. Our jobs are to spread the gospel and to help advance the kingdom of God at all costs. Or have we forgotten the ultimate cost that was covered for us on the cross? Opportunity is all around you. Opposition is everywhere. Instead of allowing either to bring fear, use both together for a growing and educational experience that will make you wiser and keep the next generation from having to go around you. You say I’m not smart enough to do this or do that. David was a shepherd. He knew sheep. Sheep have to have food and they are very ignorant animals so they must be guarded at all times. They will literally drown staring up at the rain. When you tend to enough sheep you soon grow a heart for the flock. The flock was his sustenance. His food came from them, his clothing came from them, and they carried him as much after as he carried them before. It’s amazing when you think about it shepherds and kings. They are a lot alike. They provide many of the same things for their flock/people. They require a lot of the same things from their flock/people. It’s not the way we want it to appear to us, it’s the way God wants it to be for us. You don’t have time to wrestle with fear of our opposition because God is stacking opportunity at your feet. Move child of God, move!!!!!
M.U.S.C.L.E. 