Hosanna Restoration Church

Every day we are presented with any of a number of opportunities. When we wake up, we have the opportunity to get up or to sleep awhile depending on our schedule. I doubt that we see that as much of an opportunity when it is easy for us to jump out of bed! However, if we were the man who had been let down through the ceiling by his friends, the opportunity to get up would take on a whole new perspective.

I began thinking about opportunities when the Lord said to begin to watch for them. I felt like I (we) should look for those opportunities to glorify God and expect results when we act on them. I related this quickly to an earlier word the Lord had spoken to me about watching and praising for even the smallest of things expecting larger things to come.

Of course once you begin to consider the things God is saying to you, that is all it takes for the Holy Spirit to turn a seed into a tree. First, I became aware that with every opportunity, there is also the other side of that opportunity. For instance when we have the opportunity to forgive, we also have the opportunity not to! The other side of the opportunity to reveal the love of God is the opportunity to reveal our lack of God’s love. Those are simplifications I realize but you understand what I mean.

Well Jesus was the master of everything, especially opportunities to teach and to glorify His Father. In this passage of scripture a lot goes on. Jesus is in a house with the power to heal. Four friends seize the opportunity to take their paralytic friend for healing. They can’t get in, but they are determined to see their friend healed so they let him down through the roof. Jesus loves their faith and forgives the man’s sins. Oops! That was not what they came for! On top of that, the religious leaders take exception to Him forgiving sins and the discussion is on! Jesus is taking this opportunity to teach while the paralyzed guy and his friends have to deal with the opportunity to be disappointed at the least and mad at the most. What were they thinking? What would you be thinking?

What do you think when all is not going according to your plan? Do you hold on to the opportunity to behold the glory of God or pick up your marbles and go home? That is an old saying to describe going away mad for those of you who have never heard it.

We don’t know how the long the discussion continued for sure, but the end result was worth the wait. Jesus finished up the teaching by confirming that He could heal and forgive. The only people who were disappointed were the religious folks who preferred not to believe.

The man and his friends danced home and told everyone that if they had the opportunity to get close to Jesus to do it no matter what it took. This is the opportunity we have every day. Get closer. Never give up! Seize the opportunity.