Amanda BethSharing the Truths Behind the TRUTH

Aug 29th Monday’s Blog: Missed Opportunities

Have you ever had an opportunity for God to use you and you didn’t take it and later regretted it?

I was in the check-out line at the grocery once when I noticed a woman in front of me didn’t have enough money to pay for her groceries. I instantly felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to help her. Instead of helping her right away, I started calculating my groceries to see if I had enough money since I only brought a small amount of cash. By the time I was done figuring it out, the lady already returned some of her groceries and checked out.

I missed that opportunity because I didn’t act when God told me to.  I had to “reason it out” first. Because I didn’t trust God to provide I lost an opportunity to bless that woman.  And sure enough, after I paid for my groceries I found out I would’ve had enough money to pay for hers.

I wonder how many opportunities I have missed due to reasoning. When God prompts us, many times we only have a second or two to act upon it before that opportunity passes us by. We can’t always reason everything out. We need to trust if God is prompting us to do something, He will work out.

Of course, there are times when God gives us time to move. Not every prompting will require an immediate response. Sometimes we need to take small steps to test to see if the prompting is coming from God. But if we never explore those promptings, we can miss great opportunities to be used by God.

Two and a half years ago I felt a strong prompting from the Holy Spirit to attend a one-day publishing class. I had a desire to write someday, but I didn’t want to until my kids were older, at least five or ten years from now. At the time I didn’t understand why God was leading me to take that class. It didn’t make sense to me.

When the time came to attend the class I didn’t feel like going, but I couldn’t ignore that prompting. Despite the fact that it didn’t make sense I forced myself to go anyway.

The class was extremely informative. I learned how to publish a book from start to finish. It encouraged me and gave me confidence that I would be able to write a book someday.  After the class, I packed the information away and asked God to let me know when He was ready for me to write. I never imagined I would wake up the next morning with the title and chapters for YOU CAN HAVE A HAPPY FAMILY on my heart.

If I hadn’t gone to that class that day, I don’t think I would’ve had the confidence to start writing a book.  And if I didn’t write a book, I wouldn’t have learned about blogging and wouldn’t be typing this today.

I am grateful I followed the Holy Spirit’s leading and explored that opportunity because I may have not been given another chance. I never saw that type of publishing class offered in my area in the past, and I haven’t seen one since.

Not everything God leads us to do will make sense. I’m sure it didn’t make sense for Noah to build an ark in the middle of the desert. But if he wouldn’t have obeyed God, we wouldn’t be here today.

This is where faith comes in. We need to trust God knows what He’s doing. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).

I pray this encourages you to follow the Holy Spirit’s promptings. Don’t reason everything out in your head. Take a step of faith, explore those opportunities, and watch and see how God uses you in a mighty way!

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

—Ephesians 5:15-16

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**Prayer for the week**

Lord,

We praise You for giving us opportunities to bring glory to Your name. Help us to recognize Your promptings, and take a step of faith and follow You. Help us not to hesitate and miss those opportunities to be used by You.

We praise you in Jesus’ precious name, Amen!

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*Come back next Monday as I share more of God’s Truths and the reasons behind the Truths.

*All Bible verses are taken from the NIV, unless otherwise noted.