The Opportunity

"Agrippa interrupted him, 'Do you think you can make me a Christian so quickly?' Paul replied, 'I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains.' " Acts 26:28-29...."The greatest growth is in the place you least want to be..... Circumstances don't leave you the way they found you." Rich Rigsby

Paul was standing before the Roman governor Festus, and Jewish king Agrippa....in chains...a prisoner. That is not a place or position anyone would wish to be in. Yet, one can't read this passage of Scripture and have any doubt that it was not the king or the governor who was in control, but Paul....in and through Jesus Christ. If you're a believer today, would it surprise you to know that you and I have the same opportunity to give testimony before an unbelieving world of the reason for our hope. More, are we living from a place in Him where we can, like Paul, wish that those hearing us would know the life that we know?

One of the outcomes of this pandemic is that all of us have been tossed completely out of our comfort zones....and we love our comfort. We're having to face and deal with things we never asked for nor wanted. We can focus on the difficulty of this place, how distasteful it is, and how badly we want it to end, or we can focus on seeing, hearing, and following Him. We can't do both, so which is that we will do?

Rigsby says that its in that place that we least want to be that our greatest opportunity for growth takes place. We each have that opportunity before us. Do we seize the moment or let it pass by? Do we hunker down and wait for God to change the surrounding scenery into something more acceptable to our flesh, or do we allow Him to hone our spiritual sight and hearing in this place? Do we learn so much more about Him and ourselves here, or do we stubbornly dig in, and in the digging, go deeper into our own hardness of heart and spirit?

Nehemiah was a member of Judah's royal family that was taken to Babylon in captivity. He became cupbearer to the king. His heart was burdened for the city and people of Jerusalem who'd begun to return from the captivity. He longed to be with them, yet he faithfully served the king in that place. Of Nehemiah's example it's been said, "When you're stuck in a place that you don't want to be, be the best cupbearer possible." I confess that there were times in my life, too many, where I was "stuck" in a place I didn't want to be. I was not the best cupbearer I could be. Far from it. It grieves me deeply because I know the result of that was a tarnished witness and too many missed opportunities to glorify Him that I'll never have again. By His grace, I mean for that not be the case in this place. How about you?

Rigsby also said that our circumstances will not leave us as they found us. We will be changed. The question for each is, what will the change be? Will we grow harder, more distant from Him, and from those He's put before us? Or will we be His Light and Life, and an invitation to those who are watching to enter into that life as well? Paul was in chains, but he lived free. In whatever chains we feel our holding us through our current place, are we as well? Would anyone want the life we're living in Him right now?

Nehemiah, the faithful cupbearer, was eventually sent by his king to Jerusalem, where he led the rebuilding of the Temple and city. His faithfulness in the unwanted place led Him to where both his and his God's heart wished him to be. He bore fruit in both places, and that's the opportunity that is always before us, no matter where we are. To live a life that bears fruit even in the worst "soil." Good place or bad, will we be faithful, fruitful? The opportunity for us is before us. What will we do with it?

Blessings,
Pastor O