by David Brenneman
There's always greater battles before Easter.
Many have taken to giving their view of the account of Jesus's last days before the crucifixion. Much of which was written many hundreds of years earlier in the book of Psalms by King David.
This last several months seems to be a steep climb towards a mountain top. The air seems thinner. The clouds obscuring the real view. The slopes are slippery with the dew of each morning.
There's been many loses on this side of eternity in recent months. Been many and various financial struggles. Been chaos at work. Integrity has been questioned. Quite frankly at work it is it's own kind of stress in how people are treated versus how the culture was supposed to be.
There's times when praying for a mountain to be moved that instead God gives mountain gear for climbing. He's not going to move that particular mountain because there's lessons to be had in scaling it.
In no way in this scaling have I ever felt abandoned to the situation. Quite the opposite...I can tell at every single place I have stopped for a rest that Jesus has been right there. The mountain climbing part is familiar territory.
The hardest part isn't the climbing. The hardest part probably is in the lack of understanding by many around me. Quite a few think it's my imagination. Some don't want to think about it. It's all across the board in how my struggles in life are viewed.
When Jesus was down to His final week...I imagine each step towards the cross was both a struggle and at the same time wasn't to be rushed. Satan was all for rushing the job of killing Him. He'd been trying since before Jesus was born.
He wanted nothing more than to get Jesus out of the way so that he could get on with his plans to try to take the Heavens and the Throne of God.
Each step probably had more meaning to Jesus than we're aware of. Possibly thinking back on the tears that King David shed as Jesus shed His own.
There's probably more difficult steps coming before finding the top of the mountain. My desire is to find a new job that's a good fit for me. My desire is to get out from under the debt that we're under. My desire is to be found doing that which Jesus has me here to be doing. To be in the Bible daily if not multiple times a day. To be in prayer as often as possible pouring out my heart unhindered.
Have you ever considered whether or not you're pouring out your heart unhindered to Jesus in prayer?
Jesus absolutely doesn't want prayers that are mindless repetition. Doesn't want to hear words used that we think He wants to hear. Doesn't want prayers said only to appease our conscience. When the struggles are real...we tend to get to the truth. When the pain is real we tend to remove walls that shouldn't be in our hearts anyway between us and God.
The climb up to the cross took Jesus's whole Earthly life. Jesus didn't want separation from His Father. But knowing that He WOULD be reunited with Him afterwards as promised got Him through it. We will never know the agony of that separation.
In your own mountains that you have to scale...be sure to keep Jesus with you. Be sure that He is the one guiding you, telling you where to put your anchors, where to put your feet and hands. There's nothing about your mountain that He's not eminently aware of.
Pray on, pray over, pray through.
Don't expect others to always fully understand what you are going through. Your lessons in life could very well be yours to experience. You are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that you might walk in them. You COULD also be getting prepared for you to help someone else.
Ok...back to my climb...break time is over...
All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C)Lockman Foundation.
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