Obstacles

In Romans 14, Paul tells us to make up our minds to not put any stumbling blocks or obstacles in our brothers way. Interesting choice of words. Make up your mind to not do something, means we are naturally inclined to do the very thing we don't want to do. We must make a conscious choice to do the right thing.

Anything we do deliberately that causes someone to unjustly feel pain, or suffer, or to otherwise negatively impact them is a stumbling block or obstacle. Here's an application of what we should do.

When it is in our power to encourage, we encourage.
When it is in our power to do good, do good.
When it is in our power to help, help.
When we do these things, we use our lives to point others to Christ. We become stumbling block and obstacle removers.