Maze Creator

Acts 16:6-10



Have you ever thought your life was like a mouse in a maze? You try to go one way, but this pathway is blocked. You go in a different way, but you find it, too, is a dead end. Determine where God leads you through life can be a bit frustrating and somewhat exhausting. The apostle Paul must have felt like the mouse in our text today. He wanted to do missionary work in Asia, but God does not want to. He tried to enter Bithynia to preach the Gospel, but again God has set up a roadblock. It would have been tantalizing for Paul to question what God was doing. Did not Jesus say "Go into the world and preach the good news? Did not God say: "I want all men to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth"?



We can have thoughts in this direction, too. Why are there people out there who have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ? If God wants everyone to be saved, why does it accelerate the work of missionaries and translators of the Bible? And why not put more people there to church on Sunday morning? One thing that the mouse should never do, however, when running through a maze is to guess the creator of maze. All he can do is continue to look for ways and doors that are open and not worry about those who are blocked.



The maze seemed completely blocked the apostle Paul, but in the evening God opens the way he should go. In a vision, he showed Paul a man of Macedonia begging him to come help. So Paul and Silas and those with them traveled to Europe to preach the Gospel.



Now, if we read further in Acts 16 we read that these men have traveled to Philippi, a city of Macedonia. They met a woman of Thyatira named Lydia. After talking to her about Jesus, she believed, and she and all her household were baptized. In Acts 16 we read of a jailer also some who would kill himself with his sword. But Paul and Silas stopped in time and told him the good news of Jesus Christ. He, too, with all his family were baptized.



In Macedonia, as Paul went to Thessalonica and Berea, and from there he went down and Silas in Athens, Greece and Corinth. And if we discover that Paul frustration, because the road was blocked in Asia and Bithynia was greeted with the joy of being able to preach Christ to the Philippians, and Thessalonians and Corinthians, and you and I would not have these wonderful books of the Bible, except that the maze, for Paul, had become blocked.



What is the blocking of your labyrinth at the moment? Does God stop you from finding another job? Do you have any frustration because a disease is hindering your path through life? Maybe you felt desire to bring Christ to a loved one, but the door is open just not right now. Rather than feeling frustrated and guess what God does, we will find encouragement from the labyrinth of the Apostle Paul was in. He was not the result of history. He did not know that God had big plans for his people in Macedonia and Greece, and the labyrinth of Paul was there to lead these people. Even at Philippi, Paul and Silas were thrown in jail. They were chained hand and foot. But what looked like the end of the road for them has become an open door to bring Jesus Christ to the jailer in place.



If you miss your flight of the aircraft, rather than become frustrated, it may be an opportunity to speak with a travel companion of Jesus. If a disease takes you to the hospital, he can open the door to speak to your nurse of his Savior. If you do not receive this promotion, it can give you the chance to finally confess your faith to a colleague.



A mouse in a maze can never see below ..