God wants us to live with a great sense of expectancy. However, we need to keep in mind that great things don't just happen. They occur when we walk with God and cooperate with Him.

The Apostle James was known for being a very blunt and outspoken minister, and he had some powerful things to say about the Christian not merely saying he believes, but acting on his faith!

Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar?

Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing —what counted with God?
(James 2:19-25 MSG)

There are a couple of phrases here that I really like—the "mesh of believing and acting" and the "seamless unity of believing and doing."

All of us periodically have certain opportunities that enable us to act on our faith...to take a step in the direction of our dreams. We need to make certain that we don't let these opportunities pass us by. I trust you are inspired by the following:

"When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us."
- Alexander Graham Bell

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been.'"
- John Greenleaf Whittier

"The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are."
- John Burrows

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
- Thomas Edison

"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."
- Frederick Douglass

I remember hearing Brother Hagin preach a message years ago in which he presented a very simple and profound truth. He said, "Missed opportunities bring regret."

Our prayer for you is that you will miss no opportunity that God sets in front of you—that you will truly seize each day and live life to its fullest for His glory!

Tony Cooke Ministries
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