Stopped by Satan

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

STOPPED BY SATAN

1 Thess 2:17-20

17 But, brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. 18 For we wanted to come to you — certainly I, Paul, did, again and again — but Satan stopped us. 19 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? 20 Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

NIV

 

At first glance, this section of Paul’s letter seems to be of a personal nature within a certain time in history and has little bearing in our lives. Paul leaves little doubt that he would like to see them again, and that he had an intense longing to come to them. He makes this case that Satan obstructed his efforts to see them in person. What we can apply to our lives, is the work of the evil one. He is always about trying to obstruct us from doing good things. What is interesting about this is that like us, Paul had the power of God working in his life. Why then did Satan have the ability to stop Paul from traveling to see them? Would it not have been God’s plan that he not go back to see those believers in Thessalonica? How could Satan have won over the power of God? We do not know the details as to how Satan stopped him, anything said about that would only be conjecture. But, we do know Satan does attack believers for he need not attack those who do not believe in God as he already has a firm grip on them. Of course, we do have the full armor of God to be able to take our stand against the schemes of the devil. Paul should have had that power of God’s armor, as he had to know of God’s armor for it was he who wrote about the armor to God in his letter to the Ephesians. That seems to be a little confusing as to how Satan could have stopped him, when he was wearing the armor of God. Nevertheless, we have to accept that Satan was able to keep Paul from going back to see them, however it happened. Paul also states that those who he, through the power of the Spirit, won to Christ, will be hope, joy and a crown when we see Jesus. Certainly Paul was used in bringing the gospel message to many and was instrumental in their accepting Christ. We wonder about those souls that have crossed our paths. Some have accepted Jesus, some have rejected Jesus. But we also wonder if we were ever stopped by Satan in our efforts to bring someone to Jesus. Still, that is one of the goals of our being a believer. We should be making every effort to share our faith, as Paul did. Sure we cannot travel like Paul did, but we are out in the world that is full of non-believers. There is opposition to the gospel message on our culture, even from some very powerful people in leadership. They want to take God out from the public square. This should motivate us to be more vocal in our witness for Jesus. We cannot allow Satan to silence our voice. Perhaps we cannot travel around like Paul did, but we have many formats to share our faith. Let our voice be heard, let the power of the Spirit fill us so we may be more effective in our efforts to bring the message to those who are lost. Yet at the same time we have to understand that it may be possible we could be stopped by Satan. We are not sure why or how, but if Paul could be stopped by Satan, maybe we could be stopped to. We know that sounds crazy, but it just might be possible we could be stopped by Satan.