Seize the Opportunity

Max Lucado

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Seize the Opportunity - Daily Devotional by Max Lucado

Some days never come. Go to the effort. Invest the time. Make the apology. Take the trip. Do it! The seized opportunity renders joy. The neglected brings regret.

Remember Mary’s extravagance in pouring expensive perfume over Jesus’ head? And Jesus’ disciples criticizing her. “Why waste that perfume?” they said. “It could have been sold for a great deal of money and given to the poor” (Matthew 26:8-9). Do not miss Jesus’ prompt defense of Mary in Matthew 26:10: “Why are you troubling this woman?” he said. “She did an excellent thing for me.”

Don’t miss Jesus’ message. There is a time to pour out your affections on one you love. When the time comes, seize it!

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Devotion by Max Lucado | The Almighty Jehovah | https://thealmightyJehovah.com

What Gabriel Never Expected

Prior to Bethlehem God gave us his messengers, his teachers, his words. But in the manger God gave us himself. Extraordinary, don’t you think? I imagine even Gabriel scratched his head at the idea of “God with us.” Gabriel surely was not one to question his God-given missions. When God sent, Gabriel went.

And when word got out that God was to become a human, Gabriel was no doubt enthused. He could envision the moment: The Messiah in a blazing chariot. The King descending on a fiery cloud. An explosion of light from which the Messiah would emerge. What he never expected, however, was a slip of paper with a Nazarene address. “God will become a baby,” it read. “Tell the mother to name the child Jesus. And tell her not to be afraid.”

Gods With Us Promise

Jesus understands you. He’s faced hunger, sorrow, and death and wants to face them with you. The Bible says Jesus “understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

If Jesus understands our weaknesses, then so does God. Jesus was God in human form. He was God with us. That’s why Jesus is called Immanuel. Immanu means “with us.” El refers to Elohim, or God. So Immanuel is not an “above-us God” or a “somewhere-in-the-neighborhood God.” He came as the “with-us God.” All of us.

“I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Search for restrictions on the promise, and you’ll find none. There’s no withholding tax on God’s “with us” promise. God is with us. What great news!

Seize the Opportunity