Acts 13:4-8 – Why does God allow obstacles and challenges?

The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Selecia and sailed from there to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper. They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabus and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. (Acts 13:4-8)

This Scripture reminds us again that Paul and Barnabus were sent to Cypress by the Holy Spirit. Yesterday we learned when God sends us on a mission, we should pray and fast, ask for prayer and support, and accept the mission. Today we see that timing is important. When God calls you to leave, go immediately. No trouble was reported on the sea or their land travel across the island to Paphos. God’s timing is always perfect. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ERV) tells us: “God gave us the ability to think about his world, but we can never completely understand everything he does. And yet, he does everything at just the right time.”

Does that mean when the Holy Spirit nudges us to do something for God that we won’t encounter any problems? Absolutely not. Paul and Barnabus encounter the enemy twice, once in Bar-Jesus, a sorcerer (black magic) and false Jewish prophet and the second time in Elymas, also a sorcerer.

God allows the enemy to bring obstacles and challenges in our lives for several reasons. 1) He wants to save us from our problems. We must trust Him and not be afraid. (Isaiah 12:2) 2) If the mission is too easy, we won’t have to rely on God, and we might not give him the glory. 3) God uses obstacles and challenges to improve ourselves and others. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20)

When God sends you on a mission you should pray and fast, ask for prayer and support, accept the mission, start when God tells you to, and use the power of the Holy Spirit to help you with obstacles and challenges.

Father God, I praise you for filling me with the Holy Spirit so I can overcome the obstacles and challenges facing me today. Thank you (perhaps in advance) for giving me a mission that brings happiness and encourages others so I can have a purpose in Your kingdom and give you glory. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Acts 13:4-8 – Why does God allow obstacles and challenges?

38 thoughts on “Acts 13:4-8 – Why does God allow obstacles and challenges?

    1. I have been blogging for three years. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. Isn’t it wonderful that we have the power of the Holy Spirit to help us overcome obstacles and challenges. I prayed for you and your family today. I hope you know how wide and long and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

  1. Wow that was odd. I just wrote an extremely long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say great blog!

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

  2. Superb post however I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Cheers!

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

  3. Thanks for another wonderful post. The place else may just anyone get that kind of information in such a perfect way of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I am at the look for such information.

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

  4. Do you have a spam issue on this blog; I also am a blogger, and I was curious about your situation; many of us have created some nice practices and we are looking to exchange techniques with others, be sure to shoot me an email if interested.

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

  5. My programmer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on various websites for about a year and am concerned about switching to another platform. I have heard good things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts into it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

  6. Greetings! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us useful information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

  7. I was curious if you ever considered changing the structure of your site? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or 2 images. Maybe you could space it out better?

    1. Thank you for your comments, encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

  8. I’m really loving the theme/design of your web site. Do you ever run into any browser compatibility problems? A few of my blog visitors have complained about my blog not working correctly in Explorer but looks great in Chrome. Do you have any tips to help fix this issue?

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

  9. Somebody essentially help to make seriously posts I would state. This is the first time I frequented your web page and thus far? I surprised with the research you made to make this particular publish amazing. Excellent job!

    1. Thank you for your encouragement and coming to my website. I’m glad you enjoyed my post on why God allows the enemy to bring obstacles into our lives. We can trust God to save us from our problems, depend on Him, and make us stronger. I prayed for you and your family today, and I hope you know how long and wide and high and deep God’s love is for you. Blessings, Jody

Leave a Reply to Click here Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to top

Subscribe to my Devotionals

If you would like regular updates of our daily devotional Bible study sent to your email, please subscribe here.
Loading