Mountains

 Mountains are not a welcome occurrence on our life's journey. They're steep and require effort to climb. They're also large, and tend to block out the sight of most everything....sometimes, at least to us, of the Father Himself. They can be so intimidating that we think they  block us from His sight as well. From our perspective, mountains are to be avoided, not chosen. If we come across one, we immediately want them to be "cast into the sea." Didn't Jesus tell us to say just that? Yet God's "Removal Service" often doesn't resemble what we think it should be at all. Even more, we can't fathom that we'd choose for the mountain to be there in the first place. We want the smooth, easy path. Pain free, problem free. Mountains obstruct and are problematic. They could never be from Him....could they? He always wants the best for us. Mountains could never be part of His best...could they?

Isaiah 49:11 says, "I will turn My mountains into roads." His mountains, placed there by Him. The enemy may lurk there, plot there, ambush us there, but the mountains don't belong to him. They belong to God. Our God. He rules there, not the adversary. Even so, the mountains are real, imposing, frightening. We pray they will be removed, but then we open our eyes and.....they're still before us. Why? Why won't He honor His promise? If He answers, it's likely to simply tell us that, "My ways are not your ways. Press on!" He might then say the most unexpected thing of all: "Surrender to the mountain." Surrender to the appearance of things....so that He might reveal His reality in the midst of the appearances. Instead of running from the mountain....we yield to it. In that lies the secret of its removal. In the surrender we find that He does turn His mountains into roads.

At first look mountains appear impassable. Yet in them are roadways and passes that are unseen at first look. A way through. A way home. This is even more true in the spiritual realm. In the midst of the seemingly impassable are pathways and passes that will take us over and through the highest most dangerous mountain. The Apostle Paul walked through these passes in his ministry for His Lord. He said plainly that "many were the adversaries." These adversaries were never able to prevail against him and His Father's purposes for him. He surrendered to their presence and still always arrived at the place the Lord had purposed for him to be. In his surrender to them he triumphed over them, and all the dangers they contained. He'll do so for us as well....if we'll surrender.

In Joshua 14:12, the land is being given to the Israelites. Most of them chose the lush, lovely and safe plains, which had already been conquered. Caleb chose the mountains. Caleb, who with Joshua had seen all the dangers of that promised land 40 years before. At that time they exhorted the people to enter and take possession of what was already theirs. They refused and suffered 40 long years in the wilderness for their unbelief and disobedience. What enemies now remained had retreated to the mountains, the very mountains Caleb asked to be given him. As Henry Blackaby puts it, "Caleb knew that his inheritance from God was on the mountain. He refused to allow the difficulty of gaining it keep him from enjoying all that God had promised him....Seek out the mountains, and you will witness God doing things in your life that can only be explained through His mighty Presence." 

The mountains are there before us. Will we choose them or run from them? Will we surrender to their reality and so discover the deeper reality of who He is in the midst of them? He will make a road leading to our inheritance. May we refuse to be lowlanders, satisfied with less, and be mountaineers, gaining all that He has for us....and discover, in the end, that He really did remove the mountain after all.

Blessings,
Pastor O