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Thursday... He thinks he is so smart.


1 Thessalonians 2:18 (NLT). "We wanted very much to come to you, and I Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us."

Thursday... He thinks he is so smart.

And we think we know what is best.

Now the Apostle Paul had a great desire. In 1 Thessalonians 2:18 (NLT), he writes, "We wanted very much to come to you, and I Paul, tried again and again."


We are too many times controlled by our wants and they may be good wants. We think we know best and we come to God with these wants, and we don't hear from him so we think it is Him not letting them happen. Yes, we blame God for a lot of our disappointments. But I really wanted it.

Paul really wanted to see his friends in Thessalonica. In verse 2 he says, "You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition." In verse 8 he says, "We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God's Good News but our own lives. too." And he wanted to go back to see them. And that would be understandable.

There are so many things that we want to do and they are understandable. And again, verse 16 says, "We wanted very much to come to you, and I Paul, tried again and again." Many times it is God that keeps us from doing what we want because He knows best and we can have some problems with that. But the end of this verse says, "but Satan prevented us." And he thinks he is so smart. God knows how to turn our disappointment into better.

So what did Paul do? He wrote two letters to them and they found their way into the Bible and people upon people have read those letters. It seems that it was not a good idea for Satan to keep him from seeing them. And he thinks he is so smart.

Yes, Satan does all he can to mess up our life but God knows what is happening. Proverbs 15:3 says, "The Lord is watching everywhere, keeping his eye on both the evil and the good" He knows what is happening and he knows when we mess up but he also knows when Satan messes up. And he messed up here.

So, here is the whole verse, "We wanted very much to come to you, and I Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us."

Sometimes our wants are good wants but God allows Satan to do what he wants and then God messes up Satan's plan and make a difference through us.

And verse 19 says, "After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when he returns? It is you! Yes, you are our pride and joy." And he didn't need to come and see them. He would be with them for all of eternity because he shared the Good News with them and showed he cared by writing two letters to them and to us. He didn't need to go see them and we would have missed out if he did.

So let's not be disappointed when we don't get our wants. God knows best and He will make a difference. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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