Road Blocks and Stumbling Blocks

It is amazing to think sometimes that God is sovereign over all things. We hit some roadblocks in life sometimes and we wonder how we will ever get passed them. We find things that trip us up and we stumble and we wonder if we can ever get back up again. Not so much can we get up, but do we want to get up. When I go through the roadblock times, when my walk with God is harder that it usually is, I will admit that I am glad sometimes. Glad not because I am walking through them, but because I know He will deliver me from them. I’m glad that the enemy has to take time out to attack me. To me that means I am a threat to him and to his plans. When I stumble though, it is so much harder to gain the ground that I lost in the stumble. It is so much harder to return to my joy. Partly because I feel stupid for being tripped up and partly because I know I have let myself and my God down. If He is sovereign over all things, does that mean that He knew I was going to fall? Is my stumble in His plan for me?

Paul states that when Philemon receives Onesimus back into his house, it will be forever. In order for Onesimus to reach this point though he had to walk through some heavy stuff. He had to steal from Philemon, and then he had to run away. Onesimus had to meet Paul and consequently meet Jesus Christ through Paul; thereby changing his life forever. Paul lets on that all of this had to occur in order for Onesimus to meet Christ and for Philemon to be able to receive him back into his house forever. It would seem then that God had a purpose in the walk the Onesimus had to take. Even in his sin, God was still sovereign in that He used it to draw Onesimus into His kingdom.

I won’t dare say that God has sin planned for me and that’s why I stumble. I will say, however, that even in my sin God is sovereign. He uses it to teach me lessons. He uses it to show me chinks in my armor. He uses it to teach me lessons I need to learn in order to be successful in the calling He has on my life. As easy as it could be to give up, as hard as it is sometimes to get up from a fall, I know that my Daddy has a plan for me and a lesson to teach me.

Father train me to see the stumbling blocks in my path before they trip me. I pray that You help me to be more like you and more able to carry the calling you have for me with each new day. Amen.