YOUR GREATEST AGGRAVATION

We all have that special person in our life that drives us absolutely crazy.  You can be floating along on Cloud 9 when suddenly their whiney voice brings you back to earth with a thud.  They will pop up at the most inopportune time; around the corner at Wal-Mart, the center table at your favorite restaurant or beside you at the stop light.  No matter how hard you try to avoid their usual haunts, they are always somewhere in your line of sight.  You begin to wonder if you are being followed.  Maybe you are and maybe they don’t even realize why they feel compelled to constantly seek after you.  Is it possible that you may be a God-ordained lifeline to the greatest aggravation in your life?

In Acts 16, Paul relates one of his experiences.  He had been traveling, preaching the gospel when he was asked to go to Philippi in Macedonia.  A lady, named Lydia along with her entire household, obeyed the gospel and persuaded Paul’s ministry team to stay at her home in Thyatira.  What a blessing to this traveling evangelist but it wasn’t time to relax just yet.

Acts 16:16-18 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”

As Paul and his group made their way to go pray, an “Aggravation” began to follow them.  Not only did she follow after them but constantly hollered at them, declaring them “Servants of the Most High God”.  Instead of being excited about the free publicity, this girl became an irritant to Paul.  The Bible tells us that she kept following them for days.  Perhaps they decided to take a different route but around the corner, there she stood.  Maybe they tried leaving just a little earlier or later one day; seemingly oblivious to the clock she would appear.  Finally, Paul had taken all he could take.  In fact, verse 18 says Paul was “greatly annoyed.”  NOT THE GREAT APOSTLE PAUL!!!!  Yes, the one and only…GREATLY ANNOYED.  Stopping suddenly, Paul turned around and spoke Words of Life to his “Greatest Aggravation.”

 ¹⁸ And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.

Stop for just a minute; consider once again your “Greatest Aggravation.”  Perhaps it is not just coincidence that this person is always appearing right in your path.  Remember in your prayer time, how you have been asking God to use you?  Think about how you long to have a testimony to share alongside your Heroes of the Faith.  Do you think those testimonies just happen?  What if a testimony is born because God sends an aggravation into your life?  Now to the “Aggravation;” you may have the answer to the questions they have been asking.  If you will turn around; under the power of the Holy Spirit, you may be the key that helps to unlock the chains that have held them bound for so long.  Take a second look, through God’s eyes.  You may be a God-ordained lifeline to the “Greatest Aggravation” in your life.