God will never allow His disciples to “get around” scrapes; they must go “through” them. Nor will He allow us to get beyond a defeat unless we have sucked the victory out of it.
Paul and Barnabas “returned to Lystra” (Acts 14:21), the very place where a few days (or weeks) earlier they were stoned (v. 19). After such rough treatment, the natural man would have avoided Lystra as he would a plague! But not the spiritual man. God will not have him bypass Lystra without learning its lesson and winning a victory.
The reason I am not making progress in my discipleship right now may be 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; the very place where He was crucified was the place where He harvested three thousand believers in a single day! I must conquer my Lystra or I will never grow an inch toward maturity.
God will allow (has even planned) many “Lystras” 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 any record. That 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 many times until God is satisfied that the defeat has eventually become victory. It takes immense courage to face the pain and shame again, but out of the matrix of that pain is born a mature disciple. God, encourage me to face my Lystra again, despite the threat of a second stoning! I cannot do it alone, but Jesus, 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)?
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Daily with the King 