August 3

“If you always choose the easy way, asking for the peaceful valleys, you will never see God’s power displayed to enable you to take a mountain.  Seek out the mountains, and you will witness God doing things through your life that can be explained only by His mighty presence.”  H. Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day, 8/3

I live on a mountain.  It’s only a hill by most standards--it’s 1,000 feet above sea level.  Nonetheless, it is a mountain with wonderful views of the valleys on both sides.  However, they’re not my views.  I’m surrounded by trees and am hardly aware that I live on a mountain until the winter snow and ice makes it difficult to go up and down.  I’m sure God has placed me on this viewless mountaintop as an example of my spiritual life.  I’ve always dreamed of living on a mountain because of the view.  My dream has been fulfilled only partially, and I see no hope of creating a view because the trees that block my view aren’t mine to cut down.  Perhaps that is what God is showing me--that it is my job to seek out the mountains, but it is His job to create the view.  It is in creating the view that God’s power is displayed.  In finding contentment with what I do have (the mountain) and not bemoaning what I don’t have (the view), I will grow far closer to God than if I got what I wanted.  I can see that clearly!

“You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.”  Isaiah 30:29