Going Back to Lystra!
Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2
God will never allow His disciples to “get around” scrapes; they must go “through” them. Nor will he allow us to get beyond defeat unless we have sucked every drop of victory out of it.
Paul and Barnabas “returned to Lystra” (Acts 14:21), the very place earlier they were stoned. After such treatment, the natural man would have avoided Lystra like he would avoid the plague! But not the spiritual man. God will not allow him to bypass the Lystra’s in their lives without learning its lesson and winning a victory.
Maybe, the reason I am not making progress in my discipleship is because there is a Lystra in my life and I will not go back and turn it into a victory. Jesus did this with Jerusalem; they very place where He was crucified was the place where He harvested three thousand believers in a single day! I must conquer my Lystra’s or I will never grow an inch toward maturity.
God will allow and even plans many “Lystra’s” in my life, and I will bear the scars of such encounters for the rest of my life. But God will not allow Lystra to be a blot on my record. The heated quarrel, that unchecked appetite, that strained relationship must be refaced, and the damage must be undone by contrition, repentance, and forgiveness. I may have to return to it many times until God is satisfied that the defeat has eventually become a victory. It takes immense courage to face the pain and shame again, but out of the prevailing conditions of that pain is born a mature disciple. God encourages me to face the pain again, despite the threat of a second stoning! I cannot do it alone, my great “returner” will go with me! Did He not say, “My presence shall go with you” And did He not promise, “I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14).