You start the pursuit of God's callings in your life with great and glorious dreams, whether in your ministry, your business, your career, or your family.But obstacles come.In fact, sometimes they seem to pour in, like a flood.They have for me, especially lately.My greatest ministry is to raise my son in the admonition in the Lord.To that end, we decided over two years ago to move to a place more suitable for that endeavor, especially with the special needs my son has.We remodeled the old house, an 1898 Victorian, and turned it into a vacation rental.We answered God's call step by step and He led us to homeschooling and building my business.Our new home is a tremendous blessing!But the path has been strewn with thorns and weeds.After we moved, we discovered our former neighbors did not like our decisions.They opposed our running the old house as a vacation rental.So we quit the business, not just because of them, but because we knew God was calling us to something more.We put the house on the market and have undergone great hardship along the way.This week we finally got a contract.Then we found out the neighbor has bad-mouthed us and our work to the potential buyers.I was devastated.I thought they would be happy that we stopped running the house as a vacation rental and were selling it.But now it appears they are deliberately trying to sabotage the sale of our house, which will put our family in even more extreme financial hardship than we're already experiencing!In another case, I heard recently of a Muslim convert to the Christian faith.They are going back to a Middle Eastern country to share Christ's love, even though their very lives are in jeopardy.No matter what obstacles you face to pursuing God's callings on your life, your ministry, how can you be victorious in the midst of troubled times? How can you face opposition with grace and wisdom?Here's some ideas as I go through this scenario once again..1) Realize you are blessed and praise God.In Matthew 5, Jesus says blessed are the persecuted! In your pursuit of God's callings, you will experience opposition.Whether directly or indirectly, you are being persecuted for the sake of Jesus! Whether being harassed, slandered, or your life is outright threatened, this is a blessing indeed! Thank Him and praise Him!My family and I are being subtly persecuted because we chose to seek God's best for our lives.Our lives are not threatened, but we can rejoice that by going where God wanted us, we have churned up a hornet's nest of opposition.We're on the right track and I thank Him, especially grateful that God delivered us out of that neighborhood.If we had still lived there, the neighbors would be making up lies about our son and calling social services!2) Spend time in prayer and meditation.Go to Jesus and pour out your heart to Him.He says to come to Him all who weary and heavy laden, and He will give you rest.Cast your cares on Him because He cares for you.When I heard the news, and after my initial outburst of dismay and tears, I spent time putting all these troubles at the feet of Jesus.3) Listen to some uplifting music.As I write this, I am listening to Nicole Nordeman.It helps me focus on what God is calling me to do NOW.As a friend told me today, I have given this enemy enough "mind space." Now it's time to give it God space!4) Talk to a friend.When the stress gets overwhelming, pour out your heart to a trusted friend.Let the tears flow and then move on.And while you're talking, ask them to pray for you.For where two or three are gathered in His name, there is He in the midst of them!Talking to a couple of trusted friends helped me recover from disturbing emotions and go on with my day.And knowing I was surrounded by prayer support gave me courage.So here I am composing this article! Once again, God uses my experiences to be a display of His glory--that is my life prayer and I hope this encourages you as it encourages me!5) Respond with wisdom and grace.Titus 2.7-8 says to be an example of good deeds, your behavior beyond reproach.Leave room for God's revenge and pursue blessings instead.This is not easy! I delivered my neighbor in the hands of God.That is a most safe and most terrible place to be.God will deal with her, not me.6) Get perspective on the opposition.Why is this person acting this way? What's behind the negative behavior? In my case, I realize it's extreme jealousy.And the saying that "misery likes company." Even in the midst of this trial, I can realize that she is a bitter, lonely person who only knows how to cope with life by attacking others.How sad! She needs prayer and so I lift her up to Jesus, that she would find Him truly as her Lord and Savior.7) Realize your enemy is not flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the principalities of this dark world.We face a fierce enemy, the accuser of our souls, the evil one.He is real and hates it when God's people seek His kingdom.We will face opposition! We are in a battle day by day! Ephesians 6.11-18 explains this in great detail.Put on your armor everyday, before you do anything else so that in the evil day you are able to stand!I do this several times a week through an exercise program called Praise Moves, an alternative to yoga.I love doing the movements to the Ephesians verses! I feel prepared for the day, and without saying that prayer this morning, I think I would have been even less prepared for this latest onslaught!8) The last point leads me to my next statement. Exercise daily! Keep it simple, like 30 minutes per day.Working the stress out in your body will help you face the stresses of your day, whether major or minor.It's the old flight or fight response.You are God's temple, so why would you trash your body? Instead, take care of it by working out regularly and you will find you are better able to face challenges.I have been doing this for several weeks now, alternating between walking to Scripture songs and doing the movements in Praise Moves.I love combining Scripture and exercise--it really helps me keep focused on Romans 12.1-2--offering my body as a living sacrifice and day by day being transformed by the renewing of my mind.Exercising regularly helps this process tremendously!9) Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves! Just because you are being attacked or facing opposition doesn't mean that you have to become a doormat for bullies.When facing bullies, the best strategy is to stand up to them.Not vindictively, not calling names for names, but by telling the truth in love, by holding people accountable to their actions.This is truly loving as Christ loves.In the face of opposition or a confrontation, keep calm and say things like, "I'd be glad to talk to you when you've calmed down.".Follow the biblical principle of confrontation when possible--like confronting them in person at first, then if they don't repent, bring in a witness.This witness may be in the form of professional help.Seek out the counsel of an attorney, a mediator, or whomever would be appropriate for your particular situation.In our litigious society, it is vital that we have the support of professionals, especially attorneys, whether a pre-paid legal plan, or the homeschool legal defense fund, HSLDA.In our situation, we would have been glad to work it out with the neighbors, but they hid every time we came by! Knowing that we would cause a firestorm if we went to their house, we gave them what they wanted; quitting the vacation rental business.This was not the ONLY reason we quit, though! Again, we sought God's callings on our life and we realized that property management is not one of them!But now that this situation goes beyond unhappiness over running the business, we need to seek professional help.My husband talked this situation over with our realtor.She advised against calling our attorneys (through pre-paid legal) but we know that we can do so if necessary.It helps knowing that we have the legal muscles of attorneys who will send letters to those who are bullying us.We have to protect our family and it may be the most loving approach to tell them they must stop their slanderous activities.We will see, but for now we'll follow closely the advice of our realtor.10) Realize you can't please everyone all the time.This is a very hard lesson for me to learn.A people pleaser by nature, I hate it when someone is unhappy with me.But I realize that I can't change this person.Only God can.I can only change me.The attitude of, "Well, I'll just do what they want and then they'll leave me alone" won't work.They will only find a new reason to attack!There really are some people who want to destroy us, and ultimately, Satan is behind that! Go to war and do Spiritual battle, but stop trying to please everyone! When you stand for something, especially for Jesus, you will be hated as well as loved.There is no middle ground!I hope these ideas have blessed you as they have blessed me! Whatever your particular situation, hold your head up as a child of God! He is with you, holding your hand through every storm and tempest of life!
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