"Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone--especially to those in the family of faith." (Gal 6:10) Opportunities abound in life. Opportunities are basically an occasion or a ripe time. I tried fumbling for a definition of the word opportunity; and here is an interesting definition I got. According to the Google dictionary, an opportunity is a time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. And the last time I checked, everyday is still made up of 24 hours. Within those 24 hours of a day, 7 days of a week, 4 weeks of a month and 12 months of a year - there will arise occasions which will make it possible for you to do good, to bless somebody, to tell someone about Jesus, to take your business to the next level, to stand strong and defend your faith... there will arise so many occasions and opportunities to do several good things; and my message for you today is not to try your best and utilize as many of those opportunities as you can. No, God wants you to utilize ALL of them. Seize every opportunity!.
I didn't know that in life it could be required of us to seize every opportunity to do good. I thought the normal thing was you lose some, you win some. As I read this passage I am shocked at the high standard the Holy Spirit called the Galatian believers to uphold. But there it was written in black and white. "Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good"!
Truth is our success in life is not measured by how many opportunities we seize, but by how many we didn't take! A man who had 300 opportunities and seized only 10 will appear to be more successful than another person who had 15 opportunities and seized 8 of them. But in the actual sense, if you consider the number of lost opportunities in each case (290 and 7 respectively), you will realise that the second person was actually more successful. I think there is a name for it in mathematics or Economics: percentage something something! And, believe me, God is good at calculating percentages. He is good in keeping counts and taking records. He knows what each person has been given, and He knows what each person is returning! Seize every opportunity!