FOUR WONDERFUL

OPPORTUNITIES
Have you ever experienced the regret of allowing a great opportunity to pass you
by? We know that life Is full of opportunities, such as an interview, a business deal,
or meeting the person who will become your mate. Many opportunities present
themselves to all of us over the course of our lives, but the best opportunity you
can ever abundance (see John 10:10b). meeting Him and growing in a relationship
with Him includes four wonderful opportunities, which we will explore in this lesson.

The Encounter Opportunity

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah
29:13

No matter how far you may have strayed from God, you can stop right now and
turn back to Him. Just as the prodigal son made the decision to return to his
father’s house looking for a second chance (see Luke 15:11-20), you can do the
same thing by deciding to have an encounter with your Father God.

God is always close to us, as close as the air we breath. Anyone who desires to
have an encounter with Him can do so. I his message to the Athenians, Paul
declare that, “God did this so men would seek him and perhaps reach out for
him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live
and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, “We are
his offspring” (Acts 17:27-28, emphasis mine)

The Reconciliation Opportunity

“I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned
against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son;
make me like one of your hired men.” Luke 15:18-19

The young man in the parable decides not to stay in his fallen condition, but to
take a risk in order to find a new opportunity. He recognizes his faults and sets
out in search of his father to ask his forgiveness. Likewise, we can have a true
reconciliation with God only when we acknowledge our sin, when we repent of
and renounce all the evil we have committed, and ask God’s forgiveness. When
we do this, God stretches forth his merciful hand toward us, as 1 John 1:9
assures us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our
sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

The Restoration Opportunity

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

All of our sins deserve punishment, but God allowed His Son Jesus Christ to take
 our place and pay for our sin. The father of the prodigal son decided to restore
his son’s lost dignity and threw a party for him. He ordered a fattened calf to be
a sacrificed in honor of his son’s return, because this son he thought was lost,
was found (see Luke 15:23-24). The sacrifice on Calvary, and that great
sacrifice is the only means God has established for us to be reconciled to Him.
Sacrifice is the only way to redemption, according to Ephesians 1:7, which says,
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

The Provision Opportunity

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)

God treats us as His beloved children and entrusts us once again with the
privileges we had lost because of sin. He dresses us in the best garments, puts
the best shoes on us and gives us the ring that represents the authority we now
enjoy as His children and heirs. Because of our faith in Jesus, God considers us
His dear children, making us participants of the same riches and glory as Jesus.
The apostle Paul explained this when he wrote: “For it is by grace you have been
save through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; not by
works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8, 9).

I strongly encourage you to make the effort to have a personal encounter with
the Lord. For centuries, He has been transforming lives in radical ways. For
example, when Jacob came face-to-face with the angel of the Lord, he said, “It
is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” (Genesis 32:30,
emphasis mine).

The patriarch job, who justified himself because he could not understand the
“why” of his situation said, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have
seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes,” when he
came face-to-face with God (Job 42:5,6)

The prophet Isaiah was amazed when I saw the glory of the Lord, and cried,
“Woe to me!...I am ruined! For I am a man with unclean lips, and I live among a
people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty”
(Isaiah 6:5). After being confronted by Nathan the prophet, King David humbled
himself and confessed his sin, begging to be purified. He experienced a genuine
brokenness, saying, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart, O, God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

I believe a face-to-face encounter with the living God will change your life too.