Brennan Manning once said, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” Think about that quote for just a moment. Have you ever been that Christian who stood in church and praised God then walked out the doors and nothing about your life pointed people to Jesus? I know I have been there, more than once unfortunately. Let’s be honest, sometimes our flesh gets the best of us.

Paul tells us to live wisely among those that are not believers in Colossians 4:5. Proverbs 2:6 tells us that wisdom comes from God. How can we live wisely if we don’t have wisdom? The only way we could walk in wisdom and live wisely is if we truly know God. We must be in His Word to know Him and spend time with Him. The book of Proverbs is full of wisdom. It tells us who we should and should not associate with, it tells us how to conduct ourselves. If we are truly going to make an impact in the world around us, we must live differently than those of the world that live.  

God gives us opportunities each day. We must be looking for those opportunities. Opportunities to bring hope to people, to love people, to encourage them. Opportunities to make the most out of the time that we are given to impact lives. If we are not conscience of these opportunities, we will miss them. That is hard to do when we are always focused on ourselves.

Think about how much time each day do you devote to God? How much time are you spending in prayer? How much time are you spending listening to worship music or music that glorifies God? How much time are you spending reading your Bible? Be honest with yourself, is there room for improvement? Now think about how much time do you spend on your phone watching reels? How much time do you spend playing video games or watching TV? Not that we cannot ever do those things but when the time we are spending on worldly things is extremely more time than we are spending with God which is going to have a greater impact on our lives?

If you are living by the flesh and not by the Spirit of God, then you will be less likely to recognize the opportunities to touch someone’s life or minister to someone. Did you know that asking someone how they are doing and genuinely wanting to know the answer can be ministry? Sometimes people just need to talk about what they are going through with someone that cares enough to listen. You do not have to fix their problem or even give them advice. You can simply say, “I am really sorry you are going through that; can I pray for you?” Then in your time of prayer whether you do it right then and there or if you do it later in your own personal time, ask God to be God in their situation. They may need wisdom, strength, or peace. Allow the Spirit to direct your prayer time.

When you wake up tomorrow, I encourage you to ask God to open up an opportunity for you that day. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to someone that just needs encouragement or hope. He will do just that. You do not have to look too far to find people who need God doing something in their lives. Decide today to make the most out of every opportunity that God gives you. We are not promised tomorrow, so make the most out of today.