Opportunity

Look Inward, Look Around.

Potential! People may tell you that you have lots of it, that you are wasting yours, or that you should maximize yours. Yet, few people really know what potential is. And even fewer realize that discovering and developing your potential allows you to redefine your destiny and attain greatness in life.

Potential comes from the root words “Potency” and “Potent,” and refers to all the things a person can be successful at, if the develops and uses his God-given abilities, skills, and talents. Personal potential describes:

(1)       The activities and tasks a person can excel at – the hobbies, jobs, relationships and spiritual tasks he can be great at (Romans 12:3-8);

(2)       The person one can become – the professions, social and spiritual status and fame he can attain; and

(3)       What is possible for a person to achieve – the life goals, wealth, honours awards as well as the impact he can have on his community and the world.

Everyone has potential. God has endowed us with natural abilities to excel in life. This means we all have seeds of greatness inside of us. But everyone’s potential is different (Matthew 25:15; Romans 12:4, 6). We’re not all good at the same thing, we don’t all have the same interests, and we all have different abilities. As our faces are different, so are our potentials different. 

However, your personal potentials is not limited to just one area of your life; it spills over like a waterfall and pools together with others of like minds and abilities. You not only have career potential, but the potential to be great in love and human relationships. You also have the potential to live a vibrant creative life, using wisdom and doing amazing work. As a Christian, you have added spiritual gifts, abilities and power to affect human lives, edify the Church of God and transform your world (1 Corinthians 12:7-11; Ephesians 4:11-12). All you need is to look inward and discover your potentials. Having discovered your potentials, you should develop them by cultivating your mind. You should also prayerfully look around you to see what you can do. Identify a need in your community and meet it. Every community needs the gospel for instance. So as a Christian, you should reach out to the sinners in your community with the gospel of salvation. Evangelism is the heartbeat of the Almighty. Hence, you must be engaged therein.

This year, give what it takes to win souls to God. Pray that God will open doors of opportunity for you to spread the gospel round, and when the opportunity opens up, maximize it. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:17). May God make you a fruitful Christian. AMEN.

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OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND

How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day from every opening flower!

How skillfully she builds her cell! How neat she spreads the wax! And labours hard to store it well with the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill, I would be busy too:

For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play Let my first years be past, That I may give for every day some good account at last.

By Isaac Watts, “Against Idleness and Mischief”

This poem echoes Proverbs 6:6, where idle and indolent persons are admonished to learn foresight, industry, economy, and productivity from the feeble, insignificant and almost microscopic ant. Here, we are asked to ponder on the busyness and industry of the bee, and then shun idleness.

God detests idleness (Ezekiel 16:49). He expects everyone to live a productive life. He wants you, for instance, to have a gainful employment, and stop depending on others for your sustenance and existence. In 2 Thessalonians 3:10, He instructs through Apostle Paul, “If any would not work, neither should he eat”; that is, he should not be supported from the earnings of others. Idleness is a great sin, and the supporting of idle persons by private or public charity, or in any way which encourages them in idleness, should be conscientiously avoided. 

“In all labour there is profit,” says the Holy writ (Proverbs 14:23). Legitimate, honest, and God-honouring industry has great gains (Ephesians 4:28). It is a good remedy against poverty; it gives meaning and satisfaction to life, and ultimately prepares one for eternal bliss. So to achieve something worthwhile this year, you must look for what you can do with your hands. In other words, you must seek for opportunities and make the most of them. 

Spotting Opportunities

Opportunity is a promoter and an agent of change; every change in life is as a result of utilized opportunity. Opportunities abound everywhere. All you just need is to be able to recognize one when you see it. Many people complain, murmur and ignore an opportunity when it comes because they can’t recognize it. They never know it’s an opportunity until it is lost forever.

Opportunity can be tough or subtle to spot. According to William Arthur Ward, one of America’s most quoted writers of inspirational maxims, “Opportunity is often difficult to recognize; we usually expect it to beckon us with beepers and billboards,” but it doesn’t often come that way surprisingly, recognizing an opportunity depends solely on you. What does opportunity look like to you? You need to know the kind of opportunity you’re looking for; identify it because if you don’t, it’s likely to sneak past you unnoticed. 

Sometimes an opportunity may be hidden from plain view, but there are visible clues that one can follow. In such a case, you need to recognize and follow the clues that will lead you to the opportunity you’re seeking. When looking for gold, miners don’t expect to find it just laying around on the surface of the ground. 

Think Fast, Think Smart!

They search for clues such as favourable rock formations or deposits of certain metallic ores. When they find the right clues, then they take a closer look.

At other times, opportunity disguises itself as something else. Someone once said that the reason most people fail to recognize opportunity is because it’s often disguised as hard work. Whatever the case, if you broaden your parameters a bit, and use a little imagination, you can train yourself to see opportunities that were previously hidden from your view. Now, how do you spot an opportunity?

(1)      Networking.

Networking is looking for opportunities by asking people. It is used especially for finding out about jobs not advertised. If you learn to network effectively, you’ll get inside information on jobs and careers, and build contacts that can help you find work.

(2)      Information.

Information about opportunities is everywhere: the internet, the media, agencies, etc. The internet is particularly handy for job search as there are many ways it can take the legwork out of sorting through and applying for job vacancies. There are lots of recruitment websites where you can have a shot at the opportunity you seek. Newspapers, trade magazines, jobcentres and recruitment agencies are some of the other places employers advertise their job vacancies. The internet, especially the social media, also provides opportunities for reaching many people and places with the gospel message.  

(3)      Creativity.

You can create your own opportunity! Instead of searching almost endlessly for white – collar jobs, or telling yourself, “There are no jobs anywhere because of the harsh economic weather,” you can create your own job. You can also create “open doors of opportunity” in winning souls for God and giving humanitarian services. How? First, identify and pursue a niche that is either underserved or an emerging trend. In other words, see a need in your community. Once you recognize a need, look at it objectively from all angles and get creative about how you could serve that need. You may have an idea about how to do something better, faster, cheaper or at a higher quality. 

You may have a new service idea. Second, make sure your niche overlaps with what you do well and your passion. Once you define your niche, make it your business to know more than your peers about this area. Lastly, devise a strategy that helps you stand out from the crowd and get noticed like developing, promoting, and leading a website, blog, online discussion forum or networking group, or emailing newsletters on your area of expertise. In a nutshell, be a guru and sell yourself!

(4)      Faith.

Listen! Without God, your creativity and the help of others will be in vain. Therefore, don’t trust in the arms of flesh. Depend on God, and He’ll open the doors of opportunities for you. Scriptures admonish, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Seizing Opportunities

Benjamin Disraeli said, “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” When your opportunity comes, you need to grab it with both hands and make the most of it. One way to make good use of your opportunity is to prepare for it before it comes. Be prepared for anything, surprises can come up anytime. Even a lost opportunity can present itself again. Make yourself ready, therefore, by investing in your knowledge and experience.

And how do you seize opportunity when it comes? In 1 Corinthians 16:9 Paul says, “a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” Many times Paul uses the word “door” as a figurative term for opportunity (See also Acts 14:27; 2 Corinthians 2:12: Colossians 4:3). And as we study his life and ministry, we get valuable insight into how he seized the opportunities that came his way, and accomplished so much for the Lord during his lifetime. 

(1)      Devise a plan, you must take the time to develop a strategic plan. Reading 1 Corinthians 16:1-7, it is clear that Paul was not shooting from the hip. He had a plan and put it in writing for the Corinthians to read. He had a strategic plan for the offering he was collecting for the poor saints at Jerusalem. He had a plan for the correct and right way to get the offering to Jerusalem. He had personal travel plans for the future. What is it that you would like to accomplish in life? Do you have a plan for how you are going to accomplish it? Until you have a plan and can write it down, you don’t have a goal. You simply have a good idea, but good idea, but good ideas seldom come to fruition without a plan. 

(2)      Maximize your potentials. God has given everyone spiritual gifts, natural abilities, skills, and talents to excel in life. Discover your own God-given abilities and develop them. Step out of your comfort zone and improve yourself. Like Paul, focus on self-development and not self-fulfillment so that you can attain the purpose for which you were created (Philippians 3:13-14). Rabbi Samuel Silver taught that “the greatest of all miracles is that we need not be tomorrow what we are today, but we can improve if we make use of the potential implanted in us by God.” God desires to accomplish something great through you. Therefore, continue to expand your horizons until you get to where He wants you to get to. 

(3)      Be courageous to overcome problems. Paul said there were adversaries that wanted to close his doors of opportunity. There are risks and adversities associated with every opportunity. You just need to be courageous in the face of daunting challenges, and see every obstacle as a stepping stone to greater heights; for “there are no problems, only opportunities,” says an old cliché. 

(4)      Don’t despise small opportunity. Often, the first opportunity you get is small. Don’t be discouraged about this small, “unpopular” opportunity, or despise your small beginning. Paul started with the small openings he had, and before the end of his life had established great churches almost everywhere in the Gentile world. The bible assures, “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase” (Job 8:7). Your small business today will become a conglomerate tomorrow and your unrecognized work for the Lord a mighty ministry. 

(5)      Be diligent in your work. Paul obviously was a diligent worker; he labored very much for the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:10). Avoid laziness, lethargy, indecision and carelessness in your work because they are “opportunity killers.” Be determined, disciplined, industrious and prayerful, and you will excel in your endeavors.

This year, you must take the bold step of becoming a Christian by repenting from all your sins and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. And if you’re a Christian, you must shed idleness and indolence, and occupy yourself in ventures that will advance God’s Kingdom, add value to your life, and promote the greater good of humanity. Look around for what you can do, and maximize every opportunity you get. May God open great doors of opportunity for you in Jesus’ name.