“Opportunity” has evolved into a term meaning a suitable situation or condition for accomplishing something.

Opportunities come in several garbs: they may be happenstance, but they may come to those who seek them carefully as well. Opportunities and how we use them are a vital part of life.

One of the grandest of opportunities afforded the Christian is the Lord’s Day. It’s a special day, designated and sanctified by God, for the good of the Christian. It’s a day of joy and celebration, a day for remembering, a day for making joyful noises to the Lord.

The Lord’s Day is an opportunity to honor God. One of the great attributes of man is his ability to know and recognize the Creator from whence he came. To honor Him is one of the highest uses of the human psyche. David must have had that in mind when he said, “I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High” (Psalm 9:1). To join with our fellow Christians who share our faith, endorse our hope, and rejoice in our common salvation, makes the privilege of worshiping Him on the Lord’s Day even more special.

The Lord’s Day is an opportunity to remember our Savior. How joyful is our salvation! How wonderful is our fellowship with our Lord! And what a price was paid to make it all possible! To remember the death of Jesus is one of the highest privileges of life. “This do in remembrance of Me,” said Jesus in 1 Corinthians 11:24, speaking of the observance of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Day meeting is made especially significant when we meet around the table and recall His suffering and His time on the cross—and all of it for the likes of you and me! 1 Corinthians 11:23-29 reads,” For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.”

The Lord’s Day is an opportunity to edify one another. Paul reminds us, “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually” (1 Corinthians 12:27). Our edification as individual parts of that body is necessary to the building up of the whole body. When we neglect the Lord’s Day services, we neglect to be built up individually and, as a result, the whole body suffers. We sing together, we pray together, we lay be in store together, and we participate in the Lord’s supper together. The Lord’s Day is a together opportunity, one where we can draw substantial strength from one another. To neglect the Lord’s Day is to neglect our own personal growth and to affect the growth of the whole body of which we are a part.

The Lord’s Day is an opportunity to learn. We come together to worship, ‘tis true; but we also come together to learn. We are told that we “teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs” (Colossians 3:16-17) when we sing praises to our Father. Luke tells us, “when the disciples came together on the first day of the week to break bread, Paul preached to them” (Acts 20:7). The opportunity to learn is one of the blessings of life; but to learn of the Savior and His salvation is far and away the greatest of all those learning blessings. To listen to what He has done for us, to learn to immitate His life in ours, to know how to treat others, to know—in fact—how to recognize and grasp opportunities, are all afforded to the worshiper on the Lord’s Day. To learn is to grow, and to grow is to please God. To be here is to have the opportunity to grow and please God.