What do you do when you’ve hit a wall? When you’ve tried all you can, and nothing’s working? When it feels like no matter what you do, it still isn’t enough?

We’ve all been there. Whether it’s work, school, relationships, or another area of life, each of us has come to a point where we just don’t see a way forward. And that is a difficult place to be.

So what do we do in these situations? Do we give up? Think of a different approach? Keep trying the same old tactics? It’s not always easy to know what the right step is.

I’ve been reading the book of Acts recently, and I’ve been inspired by the stories of the early church and the many, many obstacles these amazing brothers and sisters they overcame. In the face of resistance, hatred, and even persecution, they persisted in their faith, and they found a way to share the good news of Jesus across the world.

One of those early followers was the apostle Paul. In between starting countless churches and writing a good portion of the New Testament, Paul travelled all around, sharing the gospel with anyone who would listen. He had experienced Christ in a life-altering way, and so he made it his mission to introduce Jesus to as many others as he possibly could.

Paul had a playbook. His typical approach to sharing the gospel in a new town was to worship at the synagogue and tell people about Jesus there. At that time, Jesus-followers were almost all Jewish, Paul included, and so he saw the synagogue as his primary platform for telling people about Christ.

This was met with mixed success. At times, people responded to Paul’s message and became fellow believers. He would develop deep bonds with these new converts and help them start churches out of their homes. Then, when circumstances forced him to, he’d move on to the next city, entrusting the church to carry on the work he’d started there.

Other times, though, Paul didn’t make any headway at the local synagogues. He was even sometimes met with hostility. Acts 13 tells the story of one particularly tense encounter Paul had at the synagogue in Antioch. I’ll let you read it for yourself, but here’s a quick summary:

Paul and his partner Barnabas travel to Antioch to share the gospel there. After first hearing the message, the people seem interested and ask the men to return to the synagogue the following week. But upon their return, Paul and Barnabas are met with resistance and insults that inhibit them from preaching any further.

In other words, they hit a wall. They had been trying to share the gospel with this group of people and seemed to be making progress, but all of a sudden, they found themselves facing a barrier that they could not overcome.

What was Paul to do? He knew that he had been called by God to share the message of Christ’s love with others. He’d even felt led to the city of Antioch. And yet, nothing was happening.

That’s when he decided to regroup. In Acts 13.46, Paul says to the people at the synagogue, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”

The word “Gentile” simply means anyone who is not Jewish. Basically, Paul told the people who rejected his message that if they didn’t want it, he would take it elsewhere to those who would be willing to receive it. And in turn, he began bringing the good news to people who had never heard it before, people who weren’t even considered potential converts up to this point.

I imagine that most people reading this fall into the Gentile category. And if you’re a Gentile believer reading this (like me), then you have transformational moments like this one from early church history to thank for your hearing the message. This is one of the earliest instances of the church embracing Gentiles, and I for one am so thankful for that!

When Paul realized that he had hit a wall, what did he do? Well, he didn’t give up. Instead, he used this opposition as an opportunity to discern what God had for him next. And in doing so, he began taking the gospel to a whole new group of people and welcoming them into the family of God. I think that’s pretty amazing.

Throughout the book of Acts, we see the early Christians come up against resistance. But they didn’t get upset. They didn’t give up. And they didn’t blame God (or the devil) for the positions they found themselves in. Instead, they chose to use these moments to reevaluate and ask God what they should do next. Often that was something totally unexpected and new.

What if we took the same approach? Where would we be if we chose to see opposition not as a curse, but as an opportunity for discernment? How different would our lives looks if we searched for wisdom when we hit a wall rather than giving up? It seemed to work pretty well for Paul; maybe we should do it, too.

I’m trying to see things that way now, looking for God’s hand even in the more difficult aspects of life. I don’t believe that God wants us to suffer, but I do believe that God uses those times to form us into who we’re supposed to be and lead us to where we’re supposed to go. But that can only happen if we’re looking for direction in the midst of opposition.

How about you? Have you ever had a similar experience when you felt like you were up against a wall? What do you think of this idea of using resistance as an opportunity for discernment? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences below.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope that you found it helpful, or maybe even that it made you think a little differently. I’ll talk to you again soon!