Hope Arise

05/23/2022

When God doesn't move a mountain, He may be asking you to climb it.

There are times in our life when we really need a miracle because we are facing a situation that we are just not capable of changing. Then there are times we just want God to remove the problems when we are capable of overcoming them with His help. What I mean is that sometimes there are mountains that only God in all his glory can move and then there are mountains that He is asking us to climb. Is God asking you to climb a mountain right now? Are you needing to face a hurt, habit, or hang-up that you just wish God would miraculously heal with little to no effort on your part?

Now sit and think with me for a moment. If you were just given a college degree but didn't first take the basic steps you needed, beginning with an elementary education, would that degree be useful to you? Would you have learned what was necessary for you to use that degree if you never learned how to read, write, or do arithmetic? The correct answer is NO. That degree would be nothing more than a piece of paper. It would be useless.

Now let's apply this same concept to a difficult situation, one that involves your spiritual life. If God always fixed your problems, both those you have created and those that were forced upon you, could you say that you learned anything from it? Would it make you a more Christ-like individual that is well on your way to knowing and understanding the love of God? Again the answer is NO.

This kind of help would make you a human being who has a God that just cleaned up after you. What if He didn't love you enough to allow you to grow from those “prime opportunities?” I don't know about you, but if I had a God that operated out of pity and not out of righteousness I would be one hot mess. If I didn't have to clean up any mess I’m positive I would find myself in deep trouble, again and again, having learned nothing from the previous times before. There is no way that I could ever grow spiritually, emotionally, and eternally if this were my reality. My life would then have no meaning or purpose for which I should even exist. With all that said, I feel that God does in fact ask us to stop going round and round the bottom of some of our mountains. He wants us to climb them instead.

This first requires us to admit that there is a mountain that we need to climb. I know that I myself have viewed some of my mountains as beautiful meadows when in reality they were toxic landfills that needed to be bulldozed over inorder to completely start afresh. Once we see our mountain for what it really is we need to get our climbing gear on, by getting connected with others for support. Then we can begin to move up that mountain one step at a time, at a pace that is comfortable to us and at a pace at which God says to move.

There is no running up the mountain. You won't be able to obtain long-term healing by running quickly through and over every rock and cliff you encounter. It is at those moments that you will need to stop and think about the process of how you will overcome that obstacle. This can be done with prayer and wise counsel. Then you give it your best shot. If you stumble and fall, so be it. Get back up and try try again. With God all things are possible (Matt. 19:26) and that includes whatever stumbling blocks you encounter.

There will be times when you are weak and weary (Isa. 40:30). Look up and see those who have gone before you, cheering you on (Heb. 12:1). Keep your eyes and heart focused on the Lord (Heb. 12:2) as you are learning step by step to break off every sin, every chain, and every hurt that has accumulated in your life. Keep pushing to the top. When you arrive it is there that you will be greeted by your loving Father. The one who loved you so much that he not only sent his son to die for you, but he also refused to equip that mountain with an escalator. Instead, He watched your every move and cried tears of joy because he knew that you were doing this just for Him. You were obedient in His will for your life no matter how hard a task the problem may have appeared. He is filled with so much joy that at the top of the mountain He places His hands around your face, where it becomes imprinted (Isa. 49:16) and gently whispers “Well done my good and faithful servant, well done” (Matt. 25:21).

05/16/2022

What if nothing was considered waste?

One day when I was sitting on my back porch a garbage truck pulled up next to my apartment. The sign on the side of it read: “What if nothing was considered waste?” I laughed out loud when I saw the sign. It was amusing for the sheer fact that God too was in the recycling business so to speak. I realize it was referring to recycling actual garbage, but have you ever looked up the definition of recycle? According to google recycle means to convert (waste) into reusable material.

Have you ever felt that you have wasted time, days, years, or decades trying to get God to go along with your plan for your life? I know I have many times, many days, many years, and many decades. It has been so much time that I have struggled with thinking I have really messed things up. It is then that I find myself in another struggle to believe that God really does have a plan and a purpose for my life. Creating a spiral of doubt, shame, and guilt. And it's all because I wanted things done my way, and my way is the absolute wrong way.

So, for me to encourage myself with a reminder of the need to let God lead, I have placed a photo on my IWatch that reads, “His will, His way, My faith.” It is so much easier to remember and recite than it is to follow. Just being honest.

But getting back to the concept of recycling, I couldn’t help but think of how God can and will take what I consider to be wasted time in my life and convert it into something that can be used in a way that will glorify him. I believe this to be possible because it is a biblical promise. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

For him to work all things for our good we must first surrender to his will. I looked up the definition of surrender and found that the Britannica dictionary had put it best. It said that surrender means to agree to stop fighting, hiding, resisting, etc., because you know you will not win or succeed. I think this version of the definition speaks volumes spiritually.

Surrendering your will over to God should be routine, like when you set the garbage out every week on trash day. Except you do this daily. If you are anything like me, it can be a bit of a struggle to just remember to set the trash can out on the curb the night before the garbage truck picks it up. But man, when I don't set it out and I hear the garbage truck zoom by my house first thing in the morning I know I’m in trouble. What do you do with a whole week's worth of trash when you need room for another week's worth of trash? As I said, in trouble.

Don't find yourself in trouble. Remember to Give God your mess, thank him for the provision of grace, watch him recycle what you have handed over to him. Let Him turn it into something truly reusable i.e., a testimony. He will use it for your good and for his glory. So, I will leave you with this, “What would your testimony be if nothing is considered waste?”

11/11/2021