Your Opportunity – September 8, 2009

Your Opportunity

Revelation 13:9-10

Jim Stephens

09-08-09

 

Scripture:

 

9 Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand. 10 The people who are destined for prison will be arrested and taken away. Those who are destined for death will be killed. But do not be dismayed, for here is your opportunity to have endurance and faith.  (Revelation 13:9-10 NLT)

 

This brief chapter is filled with the exploits of the two evil beasts that blasphemed God and deceived the people of the world.  Lest we forget that even in troubling times God is still in charge, the phrase “was allowed” or “was permitted” is used four times in this chapter describing the activities of the two evil beasts.  What happened is what God allowed to happen.

 

Even as verse 10 describes the suffering of imprisonment or death, God reminds his people that hard times (which He has allowed to happen) provide an opportunity to develop and exercise endurance and faith.

 

When wrong things happen, my reaction is to wish and pray that God will “make it stop!”  When I experience hardship or setback or feel I am treated unfairly, my reaction is to wish and pray for justice and relief.

 

God says that the things that happen are the things he allows and that I should not be dismayed but respond to these things as opportunities to develop endurance and faith.

 

Prayer:

 

Father, I believe this is the word you have for me today.  I need grace and faith to respond to your word and not to react to the things that happen around me and the things that happen to me.  Help me resist the temptation to whine and complain when challenges come.  May I, with confidence and grace, recognize my opportunity to develop endurance and faith.  Amen.