080 – How to Redeem Missed Opportunities from God

080 – Have you ever missed an opportunity God gave you?

I certainly have. It feels like such a waste, doesn't it?

Sometimes I have acted too soon and sometimes I have responded too late to do what God wanted me to do.

It reminds of what happens with my three peach trees.

It's spring time here in the United States. The weather is warming up. The flowers are starting to bloom. AND my peach trees are in blossom. That means I will have lots of tasty peaches to eat later in the summer.

Unfortunately, some of the peaches always get knocked of the tree before they get ripe. And invariably, some of the peaches will over-ripen on the tree, fall to the ground and rot. Yuck. What a mess. What a waste!

But usually, even though some fruit is lost, it always amazes me how productive my peach trees are each year.

So, I was thinking about the bushels of peaches each year and that reminded me of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22, 23:
"...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Sometimes the fruit of the Spirit, which God gives us, is bountiful and we use these gifts and the opportunities that come with them wisely.

Just like some of the peaches fall to the ground before they're ripe, we sometimes do something before God tells us and that opportunity is like the little green peach that falls to the ground before it's ripe.

Other times, it seems like we waste the opportunities God gives us by waiting too long to follow His directions. It's kind of like the peaches on my tree that aren't picked when they're ripe and they rot instead.

We can either act too quickly or too slowly to God's plans for us and the opportunity is lost.

But you know what I do with those unripe and over ripe peaches? I rake them up and add them to the compost pile. They decompose and then offer nourishment for next year's garden.

So when you mess up and don't do something God has given you to do, it's not great, but it's the end of the world. You can put that unripe or rotten opportunity into your "spiritual compost pile." All that was bad about that experience will rot away, and what is left is God's love and your desire to do what is right (which was there all along).

You can take this "spiritual compost" and apply it to the next task at hand. You can take the lessons learned and the humility gained forward with you and it will bless all you do. Just like adding reg

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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life.

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