Obstacles are Opportunities!

Micah 2:13 (NLT) Your leader will break out and lead you out of exile, out through the gates of the enemy cities, back to your own land. Your king will lead you; the LORD himself will guide you.

Micah prophesied to the people of Israel and Judah about 750 years before Jesus’ birth. In seven short chapters he warns that God’s judgement was coming, and offered  God’s  pardon to everyone who repented. Christians today remember Micah more for predicting with great accuracy Bethlehem as the birth place of the Messiah. “A God who breaks through”  is what he calls the Almighty in the verse above.

The description is reminiscent of the days when God rescued His people out of the most terrible slavery in Egypt and put them on the way to the Promised Land—to freedom, eternal joy and salvation. But what did they confront on the way? A vast ocean before them and Pharaoh’s  powerful army pursuing behind them. But  Moses was not threatened or despair. He looked up to God for instructions, and in obedience to Him had the ocean split into two.

Forty years later, when their long sojourn in the desert was at last coming to an end and the Promised Land appeared to be within their reach, they would again face a seemingly insurmountable barrier—the formidable walls of Jericho. All that the fugitives led by Joshua had to do was, steadfastly pray and praise. God brought the walls down for them!

It is perfectly natural for a Christian who is freed from the deathly grip of sin to encounter obstacles and dangers in the journey of life. God allows them to test our faith, to help us grow spiritually, to discipline us, to train us and make us tougher for greater ‘journeys’ and to demonstrate

His might and authority. This is what happened during Israelites’ tortuous forty-year desert journey. Most of the New Testament writers have asserted that obstacles in Christian lives are not just normal, but they are necessary.  For instance, 1Peter 4:12 says “don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you’’. James 1:12 stresses “God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. 

Obstacles don’t necessarily arise out of Satanic plans and those men who oppose God’s words. They can be more subtle like:

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(1)    From religion: I agree this sounds ironic.  Religions were supposed to lead you to God. But unfortunately it doesn’t work that way always. Hanna had a serious need and she poured her heart out to God and prayed for hours. Eli, the High Priest whose job was to help seeker find God, mistook her for a drunken woman and interrupted her anguished prayer. (1 Samuel 1:14)

(2)    From family: When David offered to fight the formidable Goliath, King Saul was not very enthusiastic. His own brothers actually discouraged him and mocked him. Jesus said in Matthew 10:36 “Your enemies will be right in your own household!”

(3)    From fellow-believers: when a woman brought an alabaster jar of expensive perfume and poured it on the head of the Lord as an act of love and worship, His disciples tried to stop her (Matthew 26:6-13). Even children’s path towards the Lord was strewn with ‘thorns’ when the disciples tried to obstruct them. These were the people who joined the Lord in order to become ‘fishers of men’!

(4)    From society: The crowd that followed Jesus to on the road to Jericho (Matthew 20:29-34) rebuked the two blind men and tried to stop them when they cried out to the Lord to have mercy up on them. When Jesus decided to visit the home of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, the people grumbled and were openly hostile.

We can  overcome the obstacles that confront us in our journey of faith and achieve a breakthrough each time, when we pray earnestly and persistently and refused to be cowed down by bullying or discouragements, insults and taunts, wherever they come from: family, friends, the society, the  church or the ‘world’.

The Canaanite woman with the devil-possessed daughter is a case in point (Matthew 15:22-28). She refused to take a ‘no’ for an answer! Jesus admired her courageous faith and perseverance, and granted her heart’s desire. The paralysed man with a desperate need to meet Jesus and be healed, had four men lower him through a hole made in the ceiling of a house packed to capacity by the Lord’s admirers. When his path to Jesus was blocked by a milling crowd at Simon’s house at Bethany, he tried an unconventional route to the Lord’s presence receiving divine healing.

It is not the Lord’s will we must despair and give up when obstacles come in the way of our prayers or ministry. This is borne out by the parable He told about the judge “who neither feared God, nor cared about people” and the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-7). We must place  our needs continually before God as we live for Him day by day, believing He will answer. St. Paul encourages the Philippines   in Philippians 4:19 saying “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus”. Jesus promised “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need’’ (Mathew 6:33). All prayers offered in faith are  answered according to His grace, in His time. As we persist in prayer, we grow in character, faith and hope. God might delay answers, but His delays always have reasons.

Trapped in between the Egyptian army and the raging ocean, the children of Israel feared the worst and began to murmur against Moses. Some them even wanted to go back and serve their former slave masters! In their panic, they forgot the God who delivered them supernaturally from the grip of the most form of cruelty. They had not learned God’s grace was sufficient for them.

Referring to the crossing of Red sea, St. Paul makes a few surprising observations. Out of the about three million that left Egypt, only two managed to make it to the Promised Land (1Corinth 10:5). All though all of them ate the same spiritual food, and had the same spiritual drink and had undergone a type of immersion baptism, God was not pleased with most them and they all perished in the dessert.  Our religious exercises—baptism, sacraments, fellowship, worship, good deeds etc., cannot rescue us when we are cornered—when we are faced with formidable obstacles in our life and ministry. We can face crises with confidence only if we believe that God is not only able but also willing to help us, that His grace is sufficient for us. 

Obstacles are opportunities. David was not intimidated by the might of Goliath; he fought him with the power of God and won. This military achievement would lead to a humble shepherd becoming the most famous and strongest kings of Israel and eventually pave the way for a

the birth of the Saviour of the world to be born as his descendant! Moses was not put off by the rebellion of the refugees, once they had even planned to stone him to death and return to Egypt. But  he turned to God every time there was problem and God was there to help him.  The Pharisees and the High Priest thought they had finally got rid of Jesus and brought His ministry to an end by having Him crucified, but it was the crucifixion that opened the way to the salvation of the mankind! It was the martyrdom of Stephen that triggered the persecution that resulted in Christianity spreading all over the Roman empire and outside.

The barriers that we face in our lives are  God’s way of opening new doors to promote His work on earth. He promised Moses and the children of Israel that that He would cause all their enemies who rise against them to be smitten before their eyes (Deuteronomy 28:7). He guaranteed to Joshua that no man would be able to stand before him to stop him from accomplishing what God had planned for them (Joshua 1:5). He is the same God who affirmed Jacob that until He had fulfilled what He had promised him, He will neither leave him, nor forsake him (Genesis 28:15). He has commanded every stumbling blocks to be removed from the way of His people (Isaiah 57:14). He has assured us that no weapon designed to harm us would be effective.

Prophet Micah also adds that even after breaking down your barriers, God will not leave you. He will continue to reign as your King and  march ahead of you as your Captain in your war against the evil world. He is the Lord of Heaven’s armies and you will pass through open gates, as if you own the whole world!

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