Victory Call 3727

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Graeme Wilson in Victory Call

“We need to make sure we seize the opportunities we already have.”

These were the wise words spoken to me the other day by my husband, as I vented about my feelings of inadequacy and underachievement. That I am not yet where I’d like to be in life and that at times I wonder on whom I am having an impact.

I was feeling quite cozy in my perceived insignificance until he crashed my solo pity party with the following reminder.

He said, “Think about Paul and Ananias. The Apostle Paul is a huge part of church history and responsible for the Gentiles coming to know Christ. He ministered to so many generations through his daily life and writings. However, He came to Christ because of a lesser mentioned man named Ananias. The story of his greatest contribution is told in one chapter of the Book of Acts, for just a few verses. But the impact his obedience had on the world was exponentially greater than could be summed up in even an entire book.”

As I wrote this, I began to tear up with conviction because not everyone is called to be an Apostle Paul, neither should we all aspire to be such. There are, however, many of us who are called to be the Ananias in someone else’s life. Too often we miss those opportunities because we fail to obey the tugging of the Holy Spirit.

Being a prolific preacher like TD Jakes or an excellent evangelist like Billy Graham is noble and very special. But being the Sunday School teacher that taught TD, or the school friend to Billy who shared her faith during lunch period, is just as amazing, special, and vitally important to God’s plan. We do not know whose lives we may touch, or the long-term impact we may have simply by being obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

More often than not we are presented with opportunities that we don’t follow through on because of fear, distraction, insecurity, or a number of other excuses. Because we delay or avoid the opportunity altogether, we never quite know what could have been.

This is not a license to live with regret of past decisions and mistakes. But it is an OPPORTUNITY to re-evaluate what God has already presented you with and change direction accordingly.

Be well my sisters!
Diera

Diera Shaw-Mendez is a minister and youth leader at New Beginnings Worship Center, Pennsauken, NJ, and works full-time for an educational nonprofit in Philadelphia. She is wife to Chaplain Juan Mendez and mama to Olivia Joy. She spends her “spare time” running an online invitation design shop on Etsy and write occasionally for her personal blog, With Style, By Grace. Diera is a God-fearing, Starbucks loving, tech junkie (…in that order!) who simply wants to inspire women to invest in THE beauty that never fades!