Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Rock That Is Higher Than I


From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I (Psalms 61:3 NASB).

God Never Promised Us A Rose Garden
            Many are told that when they come to faith in Christ they will experience love, joy, and peace; which is so very true.  But we fail to mention that these byproducts of the Christian faith are often couched between hardship, suffering, and struggle.  God seems to be more concerned with our character than our comfort.  In the normal Christian experience, struggle is the name of the game.

The Treacherous Terrain
            In our scriptural reference, David finds himself fainthearted and overwhelmed by the isolation and trials of his spiritual voyage.  Like the Psalmist, our spiritual odyssey can be likened to our journey up a mountain with a rocky and uncertain terrain.  With the length of the trek, and the unsure footing, we become fatigued.  We reach up for one more rock above us, but our hands start to slip off the rock and we realize our strength is not sufficient to pull us up.  One last time we call out, “help Lord”, as we extend our hand.  It seems as if an arm comes down from behind the rock and latches on to our forearm and our hand onto His, and He pulls us to the cleft of the rock.  And one more time we realize that when our strength has failed, God’s grace has prevailed.

The Ongoing Journey
            We breathe a sigh of relief and for a time bask in His presence.  About the time our wounds from the journey are healed and we feel pretty secure in our rocky refuge, we turn and look up the mountain.  We understand that we must either continue up the mountain or descend back to the lowlands.  There is no such thing as the status quo in the Kingdom of God.  We are either moving toward Him or away from Him.  So we continue our ascent up the mountain, experiencing one impregnable rock after another; never being able to scale any cliff in our own strength, but only with God’s help. 
              As we go from one rocky crest to another, we discover that we get a clearer view of the glory of God.  This motivates us onward.  We still get weary from time to time.  We ask the Lord, “how many rocks must I climb”?  We answer our own question as we realize that it will be as many as it takes to get to the top.  It will be at the mountaintop where we will fully experience the real Rock (the Lord Jesus) who is higher than I.
           
           
Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing


             http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

4 comments:

  1. Great points Ken. We so want that magic bullet that make everything perfect. However, the love, joy and peace come as Jesus walks with us through this life. David was a great example. A lot of his Psalms he starts off talking about how hard life is, but a the end he is praising God. Is like has to talk it out. Just his week I posted about David who while hiding in a cave from Saul he attracted 400 men who would be the start of his army. http://www.jonstallings.com/2013/04/29/davids-400-men-a-picture-of-the-church/

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  2. Your description of the journey is so appropriate, Ken! I really enjoyed this devotional.
    I love the story of David too ~ as a reminder that we are constantly being conformed to the Image of Christ and our imperfections and failures are necessary for moving us up those mountains. Thank you both! :)

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  3. This is an apt word picture of the Christian life, Ken. So often it seems very much like an uphill climb, with the downhill view looking oh-so-much-less-stressful than continuing upward. Thanks for your post.

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  4. Great post, Ken!! The journey that keeps us continually turning to the cross through suffering and pain is really the blessed one. When we can continue to grow in Christ and be perfected through the hands of our refiner, we are the ones who can better serve. Heaven is perfect and Christians will have an eternity that is pain-free. So take your licks while on this planet and consider them all joy.

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