They say smart people seize opportunities! Whether it is in property or financial investment or simply seeing long term gains or prospects for betterment, the person who takes these opportunities is often considered wise or astute! People applaud those who have the courage to take those opportunities for gain and seize them! The letter to the church in Philadelphia is a letter of commendation to a church for doing exactly this – stepping up to the mark and seizing the opportunity, not for financial or personal gain, but to serve the Lord when He opened the door to share His gospel to others!
The great encouragement that we can gain from this letter of commendation is that the church was not known as a strong church and it appeared that it had little going for it. In fact, Jesus said that He knew that it had little strength! It was a church that did it tough! Here was a church that simply took up the challenge of seizing an opportunity when the Lord opened such a door. They kept God’s word close to their heart and shared what they knew with others in the community! They simply shared Jesus and told how He had provided all people with the opportunity of coming to His Father through acts of repentance and trust in Jesus. They did this despite probable opposition, persecution, poverty, lack of numbers and expertise.
As a result of their faithfulness Jesus made many promises to them. One promise was that their persecutors will one day fall at their feet and acknowledge Jesus’ amazing love for them! They had learned how to endure patiently and they continued on in the task of building God’s kingdom. The other promised rewards for such faithfulness in seizing the opportunity to serve included protection when the hour of trial comes; an eternal partnership with Jesus and the promise to be an immovable pillar of God’s future church in heaven! How exciting!
God has opened the door of opportunity for our church here at Grace CCC to reach out to the nations of the world that are gathered on our doorstep. He sent His Son to save these people! He has commissioned us to be His mouthpiece! What can we as a church do with this opportunity? My hope and prayer is that together we will seize it and be greatly blessed!