How to Make the Most of Every Opportunity?

¹⁵ So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. ¹⁶ Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. ¹⁷ Don’t act thoughtlessly but understand what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸ Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, ¹⁹ singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. ²⁰ And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:15-20, NLT

The summer before I started college at UW Whitewater I came across this verse. As a new student- I was really excited to start this adventure and verse 16 really stuck out to me “make the most of every opportunity… being filled with the Spirit…”

But what does that mean in the midst of dark circumstances?

How do you make the most of a bad situation?

• being ill,
• losing your job,
• suddenly being homeless,
• or whatever this bad opportunity is?

Most people see the word opportunity and think of it as something positive- an opportunity to travel, an opportunity to experience something new; but there’s another meaning to opportunity. Often in my working world, I use it as a language to communicate an area of growth. If something isn’t working properly and has the potential to be faster or better in some way, I speak of it as an area of opportunity… an area to grow…

If we look at life in the series of opportunities that are presented to each of us,

• day to day,
• week to week,
• year to year-
• there are SO many opportunities to grow.

Making the Most Requires the Holy Spirit

Making the most of times of growth- the hard opportunities that are presented to each of us in life- can be done by being filled with the Spirit. The fruits of which are:

love,

joy,

peace,

patience,

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness,

and self-control.

Knowing that in times of opportunity, we are to fill ourselves up with the Spirit. With these fruits, He will guide us through those opportunities.

And in the moments of anxiety – we can search for peace.

During moments of sadness– we can hold to joy.

In the moments of frustration we can practice patience and self control.

In the moments of anger, we can practice goodness and gentleness.

And in times of uncertainty, we can cling to our faith in SomeOne greater than it all.

Making the Most Requires Action

All of these fruits require intentional action on our part. But when we make those intentional actions, these intentional actions can lead us to make the most…

of every opportunity…

and we will grow…

for the better!

-Jess Bongiorno

It’s Your Turn!!!