Challenge comes because of your Goal

When you set some goal, and proclaim it, challenge usually comes which would give you a very opposite experience of what you want to accomplish. Why is this?

1. One possibility: it is from God

This is the conversation from the movie, "Evan Almighty"

....This situation looks like an opportunity.

If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does He give them the opportunity to be patient?

If they prayed for courage, does God give them courage, or does He give them the opportunity to be courageous?

If someone prayed for their family to be closer, you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings? Or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

2. Another possibility: it is from the "Devil"

The very opposite things from your proclaimed goal would happen inside of you, or inside of your group, so that you would be pushed to say, "I give up." This happens because your proclamation about the goal made the "Devil" really angry that he would challenge you to show him how much you are committed to the proclaimed goal. Thus, God has to allow this to happen so that you could truly show the proof that you are committed to the goal. Therefore, you could say it is from the "Devil" but in this case God is, in fact, behind him. This would surely serve you as a chance for you to clarify your motivation and attitude toward the proclaimed goal--Be careful not to get tricked by blaming something/somebody, but first thank God...

In either case, God would not be able to do certain things, and what you do would determine the consequence. According to what you do, God would be able to help you even to the degree of making miracles.