{"id":732,"date":"2019-04-29T04:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T09:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=732"},"modified":"2019-04-11T06:50:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T11:50:46","slug":"may-you-be-blessed-with-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2019\/04\/29\/may-you-be-blessed-with-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"MAY YOU BE BLESSED WITH OPPORTUNITY."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI know your works. \u00a0Look, I have placed before you an open door that no one can close\u2026\u201d Revelation 3:8a CSB<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wouldn\u2019t it be nice if God would take care of everything for us and we wouldn\u2019t have to work for it? &nbsp;Single and want to be married&#8230;the perfect person shows up on your door.  Got debt&#8230;a check magically appears in your mailbox to cover the exact amount. &nbsp;Conflict in a relationship&#8230;the other person suddenly realizes you\u2019re right and you don\u2019t have to do a thing.  Need a vacation&#8230;you win a trip to Italy.  The list could be endless. &nbsp;Want to be a size two&#8230;voila, you are.  How nice that would be.  But that isn\u2019t how God works.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God doesn\u2019t just give us whatever we want. &nbsp;Instead He gives us opportunities to work for it. &nbsp;He gives us vision of what could be and then a way to get there. &nbsp;For instance,  according to a scientific study by CNN, a person has to go on roughly 10 first dates before they find someone who is worth a second date. &nbsp;Dave Ramsey says the average time it takes to pay off debt is 18-24 months.  Conflict in a relationship is never one-sided, it always takes both parties working together to find resolution. &nbsp;And it\u2019s highly unlikely you\u2019ll win a trip to Italy, but if you put a little bit aside each month, plan the time off, you could definitely make it happen.  And wanting to be a size 2, well I put 13 pounds on over the holiday\u2019s and I\u2019ve finally taken them back off&#8230;in April.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God gives us opportunities, it\u2019s up to us to take them.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why doesn\u2019t God just meet all of our needs? &nbsp;Why do we have to struggle?  Because we would never grow and learn. &nbsp;First off, what we think we want and what we really need are two different things. &nbsp;The view of marriage from a single person is completely different than the reality that it is. &nbsp;I can speak from personal experience, if God paid off my debt for me and I didn\u2019t have to work my way out of it, I would have never learned how to manage money. &nbsp;And sometimes, the conflict in a relationship is to help you see a blindspot in your life that you need to work on.  Saving for a vacation will make you appreciate it more than having it handed to you. &nbsp;And the journey to becoming the \u201cperfect size\u201d helps you learn to love yourself just as you are.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Secondly, and most important, Jesus calls us to follow Him. That means moving forward. &nbsp;That means learning and growing as you journey through life.  That means applying His principles to the situations that occur along the way. &nbsp;That means He will open doors for you and it\u2019s up to you to go through them.  I pray you are blessed with open doors and the courage to walk through them, that is where the adventure begins.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI know your works. \u00a0Look, I have placed before you an open door that no one can close\u2026\u201d Revelation 3:8a CSB Wouldn\u2019t it be nice if God would take care of everything for us and we wouldn\u2019t have to work for it? &nbsp;Single and want to be married&#8230;the perfect person shows up on your door.&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2019\/04\/29\/may-you-be-blessed-with-opportunity\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">MAY YOU BE BLESSED WITH OPPORTUNITY.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":733,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}