6 They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; 7 and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; 8 and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Acts 16:6–9
You hear some say that they’re being attacked by Satan when their plans are frustrated or thwarted. I’ve heard this from Christian leaders when the wheels fall off some effort to serve the Lord. We don’t stop to think our well laid plans are our well laid plans, possibly not God’s. At least he’s always going to want to tweak them!
To come directly to the point, stop thinking and saying Satan is attacking us! It ignores or downplays the acts of a sovereign God. If we have a bone to pick, it’s with him, not Satan. Reference His actions in directing Paul to Europe. Satan didn’t keep Paul from Asia and Bithynia, God did. Here, the Apostle Paul, endowed with the Lord’s personal calling, appears buffeted, but Luke attributes this to a mid-course redirection by Almighty God. He does not write that Satan somehow interjected but made a strategic error in the end. We don’t flail about and end up making the most of it.
Seeing God as the agent of change behind all activity in our lives, from untimely delays in traffic to the abject failure of our lofty plans, frees us from frustration and keeps our minds on what the Lord plans to do next. There’s the old adage, “fail to plan, plan to fail.” That’s purely horizontal. Better to use the Southern saying, “If the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise,” with the latter possibility also subject to authorization by Him.
I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. Romans 1:13
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” James 4:15
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