“Opportunities do not come with their values stamped upon them. To face every opportunity of life thoughtfully, and ask its meaning bravely and earnestly, is the only way to meet supreme opportunities when they come, whether open-faced or disguised.” (Maltbie Babcock ). 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). And to join with our fellows 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, 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, His consternation, His time on the cross—and all of it for the likes of me. For me? Yes, for me. Does that not make the Lord’s Day a special opportunity?

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 Cor. 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 worship 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” (Col. 3:16-17) when we sing praises to our Father. And Luke tells us that “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 replicate 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, to grow is to please God. To be here is to have the opportunity to grow and please God.

Yes, the Lord’s Day is special. Dr. Samuel Johnson once said, “To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.” The golden moment of opportunity is present here every Lord’s Day. Let us grasp it tenaciously and hang on for dear life—for that dearest of all lives may depend upon it.

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