Obstacles are Opportunities

I’m currently facing a number of substantial roadblocks.  I’m sure you’ve been there too…those unplanned, unwanted obstacles that make for challenging days as you navigate through this bumpy course called life.

It makes me tired and weary just thinking about how I will overcome some of them. My tendency is to avoid and take the nearest exit route to find a temporary rest stop ­– a place you go when you don't want to think nor deal with what’s in front of you. Eventually though, you have to get back on the road and face the course ahead, right?

I am learning there are two ways to look at those obstacles in my faith journey.

They can either keep me from God or become an opportunity to experience His love, power and purposes as I walk through them. 

 

The question I have for you is:

What is obstructing your full view of God's purposes for the obstacles you are encountering in this season of your life?

Oswald Chambers says, “God did not give us an overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome.”

I love this reminder because it helps us see obstacles not as something negative and to be avoided, but as opportunities for God to show us how to experience the very essence of life, Jesus himself. Imagine if we embraced our obstacles with this mindset?

So how do we embrace these opportunities as we move through life’s obstacles?

Tell God openly and honestly how you feel about your obstacles. Don't feel like you have to have the right Christian response. You can wrestle, dislike, be fearful, and even angry about what you are encountering. God is a BIG God and cares more that you come to Him in your moments of distress rather than hide because you can't conjure up a Christ-like response to Him. 

Look back and remember how God worked in your faith through other obstacles you encountered.  Remember how faithful God was, how He provided for you, the people God used to encourage you, how He grew your faith as a result of that difficult season, and how He brought good out of it. What a great way to quickly replace a bad attitude with gratitude! Take a moment and shout out to God about that!

Be bold enough to ask God how He is looking at this obstacle in your path. Most likely you are not in agreement at this point. He would say, “Dear daughter, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.” (James 1:2-3) I would say, “Yeah, no!” At least initially, right?

Our lives are marked by lots of attempts to manage our comfort and discomfort levels. Who of us says “Yes, sign me up for a life of obstacles and challenges!”  But deep down, I kind of do desire that, because more than anything I want to be close to God and dependent on Him for everything. 

Comfort keeps me from the fullness of God and discomfort is an opportunity to bring me back to God, to see Him do impossible things not just in my circumstances but within my life. 

Think about your obstacle today. It could be a difficult relationship, parenting challenges, marital crisis, ongoing health challenges, depression, a temptation of any sort, insecurity, jealousy, to name a few…

Your obstacle is an opportunity for you to experience God and for Him to do The Impossible. Yes, God will move you through the obstacle to the other side. But always His way and on His timeline according to His promises! 

The Impossible is exactly what He is going to do in your life and faith as a result of you trusting Him with your obstacles.  Maybe it will be a changed heart, a new attitude, a forgiving spirit, greater patience, or even a “face lift” as He changes your countenance from despair to joy and peace!

A few thoughts to remember:

• Keep your eyes on God not your obstacles. God knows how inconvenient and overwhelming they are to you, but for God, no biggie. He's got IT and He certainly has YOU.

• Surrender whatever that obstacle is to God as many times a day as you need to. It is a great practice to let go of whatever you are overwhlemed by and let God work. Jesus invites us to cast our burdens on Him 24/7. Keep the convo going with God as you through your challenges.

• Take steps to draw close to God. Maximize your obstacles according to God's purposes for your life. He wants you to learn how to trust and depend on Him, mature in your faith, and be a testimony to others watching of what life looks like with God in charge.  Our obstacles are used well beyond our own spiritual growth but become places to spur on the spiritual growth of others

• The Holy Spirit is your power source. He is your guide and will tell you every move to make on your bumpy course as long as you depend on him. 

• Find some time this week and open up your Bible to learn the endless ways God uses obstacles for the benefit of others. Observe how men and women in the Bible overcame their obstacles and what the result of that was for them. Same will be for you.

The reality is we can push through obstacles on our own, apart from God, but we will miss out on the endless opportunities to experience life that happens when we move through them God's way. Why would we choose that?

And why would we not heed Jesus words in Luke 18:27(MSG): “No chance at all,” Jesus said, “if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.” 

Praying for you friend as you grow in awareness that whatever obstacle you are facing is really an opportunity in disguise!

Focus on What You Know to Be True

I had a wonderful conversation a few months ago with a dear friend regarding Christianity and all the other religions out there in the world. These sometimes are my favorite conversations to have because they remind me so much of what my faith rests on-Jesus! One of her comments to me was,

“Lisa, everyone has the same conviction and passion regarding their belief system as you do. Everyone believes their way is the right way and that requires some sort of faith."

She has an interesting point.

 As I finished my conversation, I thought of a few things about Christianity that perplex me - Why does God care so much about ME? This world is so huge, how can I be significant to God? I am just a little peon woman living in Folsom. Is my conviction and passion for my faith really the same as the Muslim, the Buddhist, and the Hindu? They seem committed to their beliefs too? What is the difference? These are some questions I look forward to chatting with God about over my low fat latte in Heaven one day. Things that don’t make sense to me, or I can’t find the perfect answer for? I am sure you have your own “God Questions.”

But what do I know? What do I know to be true about God? What do I know about His promises? What do I know about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? What do I know about when I pray to God and He hears me and answers me. What do I know about the power of the Holy Spirit working daily in my life to help guide me in and out of my situations and circumstances? There is so much I do know and that is where I am choosing to put my faith in. Not the things that confuse me or doesn’t make sense to me.

Paul tells us in Romans 11:33: 

“Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen”

Divine Appointments

I am so thankful that my life is not built upon good luck and random coincidences.

That behind every event and season of my life is a God at work, orchestrating His divine details exactly suited for me. Every day there are missed opportunities to see the ways God is working. He is always eager to show us His plan, if we dare take the time to seek Him in all of the spaces and places of our lives. I have so many God stories and by the end of my life, my prayer would be that my entire life story is a legacy I can leave behind where God is the one who shines through as the author and creator of my life rather than me! 

Writing Bible studies for women is the last thing I would have imagined myself doing at this stage of my life. Clearly all efforts of my works are a work of His Spirit giving me the desire and the wisdom to work outside of my comfort level and use the gifts God has given me. Consequently, this has produced a lot of insecurity within me. Almost daily I am putting my fears and insecurities before God. It is a vulnerable thing to display your heart on pages others are reading and may be critical of. Oh, the impossible things God wants to do in our lives! 

A few years, I was working on a Hebrews Faith Journey Study in the café at my church while my kids were in youth group. On this particular evening, I happened to catch this beautiful middle aged woman working on her Beth Moore study. She had her Bible and workbook out and was so engaged in her time with God. It was awesome to watch the Spirit at work in her heart. 

I strained my neck to look at Beth’s study and saw pages and pages of her gracious, well thought, and theologically grounded writing. I looked at my Hebrews Study and thought to myself, “Really Lisa, you think you are a writer and that women will be interested in your study?” Instantly, my countenance changed and the enemy began to wreak havoc in my mind. “Quit now. You don’t have time for this. Just use the studies already out there.” How does the enemy mess with you when it comes to those assignments you clearly didn’t sign up for? I am convinced the ones we choose for ourselves, the enemy is not as busy to discourage and mess with us as those God sized assignments.

Defeated and discouraged I packed my bags and began to leave. As I brushed past her table, I caught out of the corner of my eye, a woman sitting at another table with her Bible and was flipping through her study. To my surprise, it happened to be a Faith Journey Bible Study on the Book of Ephesians. I did not know this woman and assumed she was in a group led by two dear friends of mine. Immediately, tears filled my eyes and I knew this was a divine appointment by the Lord to bring some clarity and to affirm what He wanted me to continue pursuing with Him. As I looked up into the moon lit sky, He affirmed the unique voice He has given me to write Bible Studies. In His economy, He needs all of us to raise our voices and not grow weary or defeated because we are not as loud as others, as mature as others, as spiritual as others. He only wants our availability. I told the Lord that night that I would continue to be available for Him to speak through me in writing Bible studies, teaching, and encouraging other Faith Journey Groups to get started until He called me elsewhere.

Having two women sitting side by side at a church café working on two different Bible studies may not appear divine to most people observing. However, for me it was. God used an ordinary circumstance to teach me something extraordinary about Him. It’s not that He needs me to write Bible Studies, He wants me to need Him and allow His grace to flow through me completely! Where do you see God calling you to do the impossible? Is it really about YOU and what you can or cannot do or about God and who He wants to use to bring glory to His Name?

Isaiah 43:1-7 says,

But now, thus says the Lord, your creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed even whom I have made" (NASB).