Praying for ... Opportunities

Are you in the habit of praying for opportunities ... like the opportunity for a new job or career, the opportunity to get out of debt, the opportunity to improve your health or physical appearance, the opportunity to make a good impression, the opportunity to get married or maybe even the opportunity for "a fresh new start in life"?

I've done it. After all, I've only got this one chance at life so getting what I want ... and having the opportunity to make my dreams come true only sounds fair. Then it occurred to me that there's even more urgent opportunities that I didn't have the courage to pray for:

"Lord, please give me more opportunities for life's circumstances to stretch my faith past what I'm capable of bearing and bring me closer to you. Please give me the opportunity, in every challenge and hardship, to reflect Christ alive inside me. Please give me the opportunity to glorify you in every thought, word and deed."

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It's more fun praying for the opportunity to win Power Ball (or for good grades), isn't it?

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.

-2 Corinthians 3:2-4