Codes for Christian Living

Seize Your Opportunities

Then the king said to me, “What do you request?”

So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”

Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

Furthermore I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.

Then I went to the governors in the region beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel.
—NEHEMIAH 2:4–10

In the second chapter of his book, we find Nehemiah standing in the presence of King Artaxerxes. The king, acknowledging Nehemiah’s sad countenance, made a pointed inquiry: “What do you request?” (Nehemiah 2:4). Immediately, Nehemiah seized his opportunity: “Send me to Judah, the city of my father’s tombs, that I may rebuild it” (2:5). There was not an ounce of delay or doubt about him. He took advantage of this open door of opportunity and went straight to the point. Then, in rapid succession, the king asked more questions: “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” (2:6). Nehemiah had been planning and waiting for this moment for months, and when it presented itself, Nehemiah was ready to seize it. He had thought it through and had already considered all the possible questions, so he had all the right answers ready for the king’s inquiry. Successful rebuilders, whether they are rebuilding rubble or relationships, have a way of seizing opportunities when they come their way.

Many people never get started in the rebuilding process because they are always “waiting for God to open a door for them.” In my own experience, I have found that opportunity doesn’t usually come knocking at my door out of nowhere. More often than not, opportunity is found opening the door when I am the one doing the knocking!

No message is timelier for anyone who seeks to be a rebuilder. Either we seize the opportunities when they are before us, or we let them pass by, only to live with the sad regrets of what might have been. Perhaps John Greenleaf Whittier, the Quaker American poet of the nineteenth century, framed it best in his poem entitled “Maud Muller”: “For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!

Content drawn from The Nehemiah Code: It's Never Too Late for a New Beginning.