Obstacles.
They come in all sizes and shapes, from finances to family members to health issues that dog us continually. Sometimes they seem insurmountable.
In the TV series Expedition Unknown, host Josh Gates travels the world to find answers to the really hard questions facing archeologists. His journeys take him to some very difficult places. On one trip he drove a 4-wheel-drive Jeep along an isolated forest road only to be stopped by a massive tree that had fallen and blocked his passage. He was stymied. What was he to do? For a time, his team hacked at the branches, when Josh realized something. He had a 4-wheel-drive Jeep. He could go up, over, or around. He wasn’t hemmed in at all.
Do we do that, see our situation and not our solution? We see the bill we cannot pay, and we forget that our God owns the cows on a thousand hills. Our spouse refuses to attend church with us, and we forget that it’s our example that leads her to our God. Illness keeps us from Sunday school, and we spend the time on Facebook, instead of tuning in to an uplifting broadcast on television.
Jeremiah 23:29 tells us:
“Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”
Our God is the hammer that shatters our obstacles. We may have a tree filling our path, or a stone blocking the way forward. It doesn’t matter. God will crush that which prevents us from drawing closer unto him.
Let’s take strength from these two verses:
Psalm 18:2 assures us in our moment of trial:
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Psalm 119:105 gives us hope that we are on the right path:
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
God is our rock. He’s the hard stone the problems of this world cannot overcome. The obstacles that seem to torment us so fitfully are as nothing next to him.
Remember his words in Isaiah 41:10:
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
When we let God go before us, he crushes every obstacle that gets in our way.
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