In Acts 16, the progress of the gospel came through the missionaries being redirected, harassed and even imprisoned. Keep in mind that all of those circumstances were the direct result of bringing the good news. So the question for us is this: How are we willing to be used, as servants of God, to advance the gospel among those in our sphere of influence? Perhaps even more relevant is: How easily are we able to submit to the Lord’s providence in order to maintain a faithful testimony that pleasing Christ is our primary ambition? More specifically, how do we demonstrate that things like health or finances are not our god when things aren’t going how we would like? Additionally, how do we display that a desire to be liked or served by others isn’t our god, when friends disappoint, when our spouse insults us or when our children don’t seem to be changing at all?
Do we live as if we understand that the Lord uses and ordains the difficulty in the lives of his people for gospel influence, namely by putting the sufficiency and worth of Christ on display? In Acts 16, the pathway to bring deliverance to these lost people in Philippi was incredibly tough for the missionaries, but they were committed to what God was committed to and not their own self-preservation and self-exaltation.