Chopping up the Road

 Greetings to  you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First  Thessalonians 2:18 says, “ Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us”

     I have this power chair that is a great blessing as without it, I would be rather limited in my mobility but it is tricky sometimes.  When you change directions, the wheels move around  and may get caught on something.  In our room, there is not a lot of space to navigate and while coming out of the bathroom in reverse, I had turn at a certain point to avoid the coffee pot on its table and I turned too soon, causing the fron wheel to get tangled up in the table near the bathroom which has my meters on it, our plastic dishes. And a box of cherry tomatoes.  The whole thing was about to crash and so it was necessary to stop, grab the table and wait for Diane to get there to hold the table while I moved the chair away from it.  My path had been hindered probably by “pilot error.”

     The apostle Paul had intentions to go to Thessalonica at a certain time but his plan was “hindered” by Satan.  The word “hindered” has the sense of being “chopped up” or cut into so as to make it difficult to travel on its surface.The battle is raging now as it was raging then with the Apostle Paul.  We had gone to churches many times in our past years and before I was responsible for the services, I was often tempted o refrain from going.  I recall coming home on the bus in Washington, D. C. after being at work from nine in the morning to five in the evening, then walking ten blocks to get the bus home.  I would get home and dinner would be waiting but I was tried and tempted to just curl up on the couch and close my eyes.  Tempted to do it, but in the end we would go and would always be blessed by going even with tired bones.  Satan can put a number of blocks in your path to cut it up and make it difficult to make any forward progress.  Traffic jams in some places, having to stop off at the grocery store for needed food, and the most popular headache are just a few of the items.  Now, Satan is not omnipresent, but he does have a horde of demons to do his nasty deeds.  It is always vital that we remember the three avenues for temptation and the resulting sin if we give in to it:  1.  The lust of the eyes, , 2.  The lust of the flesh, and 3. The pride of life.  We often come up against one of those three avenues when we have intentions to do something for the LORD.  When anyone is making progress for the kingdom of God, there is going to be a counter action coming from Satan and his crew.  Praise God today that we know how Satan works and that God’s power is greater than that of the devil.