A great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me. 1 Corinthians 16:9

Have you ever had a day that just doesn’t go right… at all?  You just feel “off.”  Normal tasks seemed to take forever, nothing comes easy and Murphy’s law rules the day: “Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”  It feels like the whole world is set against you.

I have them from time to time…  I struggle to write a sermon or a conversation  just seems to go sideways, my computer crashes and I lose several hours work on a project. I miss an appointment and end up being late for dinner.  You name it, it happens.  And at the end of the day, I look back at my dumpster fire of a day and say, “What in the world? Sometimes it feels coordinated or even intentional, like I’m being blocked at every turn.

What is that?  Why are things sometimes so hard?

There are days when I wake up and feel like God is distant. My devotional time is dry and distracted… or non-existent. It seems like my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and I feel isolated, unproductive and unfocused.  It’s crazy, because I know that the Holy Spirit is in me and I am “in Christ.”  I know I am blessed, chosen redeemed and forgiven. And yet, the struggle is real.  It’s almost like I’m being blocked.

What is that about? Is there something more behind our “bad days” than just a bad day?

I think 1 Corinthians 16:9 explains a lot.  “A great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” We ARE being blocked, impeded, hindered, frustrated. For every great work in the spiritual realm, there is great opposition. And that opposition is directed towards God’s children. The apostle Paul was in Ephesus as he wrote this to the Corinthian church and he was having an unprecedented 2 years of successful ministry.  Acts 19:10 says that all of the Jews and Gentiles in the province of Asia heard the good news.  Great stuff!  The gospel was advancing. It certainly was a wide open door.

And yet there was much opposition.  The Jewish leaders hardened their hearts and spread lies about Paul.  And the Greek merchants stirred up the city to the point where there was a riot. Persecution broke out and Paul ended up leaving town, fast.  For every great work in the spiritual realm, there is great opposition.

 Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesian 6:12

We are actively opposed.  The enemy is trying to block you at every turn. Does that surprise you?  Are you aware that today when you woke up, you stepped onto a battlefield? And the enemy is using live ammunition?

“Spiritual warfare is very real. There is a furious, fierce, and ferocious battle raging in the realm of the spirit between the forces of God and the forces of evil. Warfare happens every day, all the time. Whether you believe it or not, you are in a battlefield. You are in warfare.”   ~ Pedro Okoro

So, when things don’t seem quite right, maybe it’s because they aren’t.  It’s not you. The Enemy is trying to suppress, stifle and discourage you. Satan is trying to take down God’s kingdom and you are in his way, in fact, you are part of it!  Because of Jesus’ victory on the cross, he’s lost the war, but he’s trying to win a battle against you, today, and every day.

Let’s be aware of his schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11) and resist (James 4:7). A big part of winning the battle is knowing that one is happening.