How God Moves Obstacles Out of Your Way
What do you do when an obstacle crosses your path? Do you freeze? Do you retreat? Do you stand? Or do you push forward and jump over the obstacle?
Today I faced a literal obstacle—a snake on my hiking path. It was black and white, about three feet long, and about an inch and a half in diameter at it’s thickest point. It was lying straight across the path, like a line in the sand. I immediately stopped in my tracks and thought, “Uh oh. Danger!” I thought it might be a rattlesnake so I took four steps back to contemplate my next move.
I don’t want to go forward with that snake right in the middle of the path. But I also don’t want to go all the way back up the hill I hiked down. Darn snake! I really wanted to make the full loop on this trail. After pondering this for a few seconds, I knew what to do.
I simply asked, “God?”
That one little question had so much packed inside of it: God, I know I’m Your precious daughter. I know I’m royalty in Your eyes, that you are the King of kings. So what do You want to do with this obstacle in my path? Do you want me to go back the other way and retreat? Or do You want me to pass through? And if I’m passing through, how are You going to protect me?
I had no idea what kind of snake it was. The fact that it didn’t move when I came within four feet of it told me it was not scared of me. I was having a conversation with the God of the universe who knows everything about everything, so I knew He knew what kind of snake it was, an I knew He had the answer.
All of a sudden, I knew exactly what to do.
Sing.
Just praise God.
Sing along with the worship music playing in my earbuds.
The song was Toby Mac’s “Lose Myself1.” Unfortunately, the part of the song that was playing had no lyrics, just “oh’s.” That’s all I had. So that’s what I sang: “Oh, oh, oh, oh.”
The minute I started singing, the snake started slithering off the path. I was amazed at how it responded immediately. The timing of it moving exactly when I started singing could have just been a coincidence. But what if it was a teaching moment in the woods with my Father God, my Daddy?
The lesson? Even in the small things like this, praise and worship to God moves obstacles out of our way. Yes, I’ve known this lesson for a while. But do I actually use it? Imagine what God would move if this was our posture when huge obstacles come in our way? What if we literally just got on our knees and just praised God. Just praised Him even though we have an ugly, insurmountable giant in our way.
I’m facing a giant obstacle right now, know knowing how to finish writing the book of testimonies from our church’s mission trips to King City, CA. I’ve been struggling for six months to write the introduction and conclusion and have faced lots of spiritual warfare, preventing me from completing this task God gave me to do. I have been using praise a lot, but maybe this is a reminder to keep praising God and to keep my eyes on Him.
“We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us.
We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you, [Lord].”
(2 Chronicles 20:12 ESV)
Countless people have used praise in the midst of battles and have seen God’s hand deliver them from the opposition they were facing. King Jehoshaphat modeled this for us in 2 Chronicles 20 when a swarm of enemy armies came against him and his men. He had them fast and pray but the armies were still coming against them. So he sent the worship team out in front of the soldiers “to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire” (2 Chronicles 20:21 ESV). As soon as they began to sing, God intervened by having Jehoshaphat’s enemies turn on themselves and destroy each other, delivering Jehoshaphat and his men.
Author and filmmaker, Bill Myers, and his wife found themselves confronted by a pack of barking wild dogs while backpacking in Israel’s wilderness2. What did they do? They sang, bringing the dogs to a stop. They were not harmed. Brian Johnson of Bethel Music relied heavily on praise and worship when he faced panic attacks and anxiety and God delivered him time after time3.
Learn in the lab, be tested in the field. I love it when God teaches me things like this “in the lab” where there’s not much risk involved. And then…this is so God…He’ll probably throw me a pop quiz later on—a test in real life, to see if I learned the lesson. He’ll allow an obstacle to come into my path and then wait to see what I’ll do. Will I immediately check in with Him or try to solve the problem on my own? Will I freeze when an obstacle comes or retreat in fear? Or will I stop and praise Him in the midst of the battle and then watch and wait to see what He does? I like the last idea best.
Oh, and there’s one more lesson. When I got home, I discovered that the snake I encountered, which had black with whites stripes that ended in a triangle under it’s belly, was a California kingsnake. These snakes are “king” because they hunt and kill venomous rattlesnakes and are highly resistant to a rattler’s venom4. That is so cool and so like God (who is not just resistant but completely immune to Satan’s venom) to use a California kingsnake for this object lesson.
My takeaway: My Daddy is the King of the world. He is immune to all venom and deadly attacks, so when I’m attacked, I will rest in the fact that He sees all and knows what I need. When I face lines in the sand, I will not run in fear or retreat but will ask Him how to proceed and listen for His answer. Maybe He’ll have me praise Him in the midst of the battle. Or maybe He’ll give me a stone and a slingshot to take out a giant. (See 1 Samuel 17:24-49.) Listening to Him is key because He has tons of creative solutions.
What about you? Are you facing an obstacle today? Is there something you can ask God about? If you don’t know how to pray or what to ask Him, just call His name with a question mark at the end.
God?
Let that be your prayer. And let that simple one-word question mean, God, what are You going to do about this? I am Your beloved child. You see this. Please help me. Let all those thoughts be packed into that simple word.
I’d love to know how you’ve overcome obstacles and if you’ve ever tried relying on God completely by simply adoring Him with praise and worship. Drop me a line and let me know how it went. 😉
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1 Toby Mac. “Lose Myself.” Eye On It. Forefront Records, 2012. CD.
2 Bill Myers. “The Jesus Experience.” Shiloh Run Press, 2015.
3 Johnson, Brian. “When God Becomes Real.” Bethel Book Publishing, 2019.
4 https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/kingsnake
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