February 18, 2007
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Missed opportunities…
I came away from our church services so encouraged today.
Pastor Mike (http://www.xanga.com/jehovahraah83) is teaching verse by verse through the book of Luke on Sunday’s. Today he was teaching about Zacharias and Elizabeth in Luke 1. I was so blessed at the way he was able, by God’s grace, to apply the trials of Zacharias to our personal lives.
Here is what Pastor shared…
You know the story… Zacharias is a priest and his wife’s name is Elizabeth. Both are righteous before God and walk in His commandments. But, Elisabeth is barren and old in years. Zacharias goes to the temple to perform his priestly duties. While he is in the temple an angel appears and proclaims that his prayers have been heard and his wife will give birth to a son and his name will be called John. After the angel tells him more wonderful things that will result because of the birth of his son, Zacharias says, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years?” Because Zacharias did not believe the words sent by God he was told he would be silent and unable to speak until the day these things took place.
Zacharias was given an opportunity … in THAT present moment …. to bring God glory ….by believing His Words (given by Gabriel) and he blew it. The moment passed and he would never have that exact, ordained opportunity to glorify God, again!
This spoke directly to my heart because I could apply it to what my husband and I are personally going through. I have this one window of opportunity in the midst of these present trials to bring glory to God by believing His Word. If I blow it, I will never have this exact situation again to bring Him glory. The opportunity will have passed.
Will I bring Him glory by trusting Him in the hard places? Will I live as if He is my all-consuming desire and nothing on earth will compare?
I pray, by God’s grace alone, that I will.
I covet your prayers….
Comments (15)
I am praying…He stands ready to help us bring Him glory. You are a blessing, dear sister…With much love–Paula
I will definitely remember you in prayer. Be blessed this week!
In Him, Caroline
I love that analogy. I’m going to be praying for you. Yes, I believe, by God’s grace you will and can do whatever it is that is your assignment. And I will be taking God’s Word as a Word for me too. Blessings!
you dont have to covet mine, i am praying for yall already =] wow, that is an amazing sermon! its so truer as well– thank u for telling me about it =]
Thank you for this entry.. and I’m praying for you!
This gives me great encouragement.. and a new POV on our trials. God bless you!
Would you mind sharing your thoughts on the book when you finish? Prayed for you right now…
Thank you, I’m copying it right now!
Thank you for sharing this. I hope and pray that I will always take advantage every opportunity He gives me to praise His name! Disobedience and untrusting heart always leads to missed opportunities. He gives us a second chance to praise Him, but it is not as glorious as, if we trusted and obeyed Him in the first place.
Thank you for sharing this post. I was feeling somewhat discouraged today, and your post made me stop and think about our message yesterday on Bearing His Reproach. I went back to my sermon notes, and also last week’s. A thought from last week that I want to hang on to is that grapes have a sweetness that cannot be extracted unless it is pressed. So if I am letting the cares of this world drag me down, I am not letting the pressing yield the sweetness that the Lord wants to bring forth. God bless your day!
And what also blesses me is that God gave him a chance to redeem himself by naming John “John”, not Zacharias II or something else. God is good.
Heather
I am sorry. I thought I had already subscribed to you. I have remedied that now and look forward to getting to read your blogs. vb
…praying for you…
RYC: Thanks for coming by my site. My Dad will be 80 years old March 10. He has had prostate cancer for the last 10 years but in the last year it metastazied (sp?) to his bones. Evey bone in his body has cancer including his skull. We believe the cancer in the skull went into the brain. He has had much mental confusion and hallucinations that go far beyond what the meds would cause. At one time we didn’t think he would make it til Christmas, now we think he might make it to his birthday but not much longer. He is getting weaker and weaker and once he can’t get to the hospital on his own steam he will not receive any more treatments, just pain management. Since my brother is a physician we have been able to manage his pain without the help of home health or hospice. My Mom is a real trouper and is caring for him herself. I know she is exhausted, but she never complains, she just does what needs to be done. I really admire her. Even though he is so sick, my Dad has managed to keep his sense of humor and it makes it easier to handle. Prayers are greatly appreciated. It is a very difficult journey we are on, but we do have an Advocate and we are having Grace heaped on us by the tons. Glad to see you come by and hope to see you again. vb
Just stopping by to let you know I was thinking about you and—more importantly—remembering you in prayer.
Checking in on you and want you to know I prayed for you this morning.