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
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
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/
ReplyDeleteYour description of the journey is so appropriate, Ken! I really enjoyed this devotional.
ReplyDeleteI 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! :)
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.
ReplyDeleteGreat 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.
ReplyDelete