In a lifetime, most of us face a great many spiritual mountains, and also some valleys. Some of these things seem easy, we just follow Jesus up the mountain of difficulties we face, and then stand at the top, arms uplifted, and grateful that we managed to survive that one. 

But then suddenly we might find ourselves facing a mountain that seems insurmountable. We know that He has led us here but we don’t understand why? For some reason, we can’t seem to find Jesus on this mountain. First of all, this situation is not about sin, it is about growing our faith. However, our question could easily be… are we on the wrong mountain? Are we facing something that was not ours in the first place? Is it possible we somehow staggered blindly around, with the sound of the last victory in our ears, plus the sweet smell of success yesterday still present … and we got lost? No!

Here is a scripture to think about carefully. “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He MAKES my feet like the feet of a deer, He ENABLES me to tread on the heights.” Habakkuk 3:19. Without Jesus we can’t and probably won’t, try to face things. He knows that better than we do. So the first thing we must do is to remind ourselves that He will never leave us or forsake us, and then we have to move. It’s time to take a tentative faith step forward. Be like that deer, who just leaps about knowing it can manage the terrain. This is how faith grows. First we hear the word of God, and then we act on it. So we take our wobbly little foot and plant it in front of the other one. This is how we move up bigger mountains — prayerfully and carefully, one step at a time.

New things are scary. It is so easy to rejoice in everything He has already done, for us and in us, but then we hit that wall of … I’ve never seen this before … then we can feel flattened and frightened about what might come next. Why would the Lord send us here? … To strengthen our faith. If we already know what to do, then we don’t need to lean on Him, and we will lean on what we already know. Faith is a journey that requires ever increasing boldness, and a big heart that keeps going despite the circumstances. 

‘Faith that is not tested is not faith, it quickly becomes something unstable.’ Listen to Peter in 1 Peter 1:6,7. “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  

So-oo-oo-oo, this stuff has happened to prove our faith is genuine – it is not just fair-weather, waiting-on-the-answers-to-our-prayers, faith … We want genuine faith that desires God to get all the glory for the great things He has done in our lives. Here’s a big thought. Dead people don’t need applause – living ones thrive on it.

This whole issue, every time it happens, reveals to me that I am not all dead yet. If I cannot hold fast when I cannot feel Him, see Him, or even hear Him, then my faith needs further perfecting. My faith is not about what Jesus does, it is about Who He is. What He does deserves our praise, acknowledgement and worship. Who He is, reminds us He is our living God embodied in a Man, for us to praise, worship, look at, learn from, and follow. 

Sometimes our grief and inability to believe, clouds His faithfulness to get us to where He said He will take us. When you find yourself staring at something so big you can barely comprehend it, then you have entered a possibility. When we read Hebrews 11 carefully, we will see that everyone mentioned in that chapter had faith that God would carry out what He said He would do. But most of them died before that promise the Lord made them was fulfilled. Faith is not about claiming promises, it is about taking God at His Word. It is not about the strength of our ability to hold on, it is about His ability and strength to hold us! Praise God we have a book full of His life-giving Words!

Bigger mountains mean that Father God has pruned, fertilised, watered and fed us, and now He is trusting us to press forward into what comes next without visible evidence. We are ready, whether we feel like it or not. Like Hebrews says, the seeing, the evidence, comes after we use our faith, not before it. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT YET SEEN.” Hebrews 11:1. Our faith in action proves God is Who He says He is, and that has become our aim – not just our answers to prayers.

If you feel lost and that mountain seems too high, remember, God is calling you to unknown places – things you have not even thought about. Now is the time to focus on the fact that He’s good! This calling we have is not about miracles – or looking clever or even knowing what comes next. It is about finding out how much we love and trust Him. We take these steps because He asked us to. “Faith learns to see beyond the moment, to the work of God unfolding within it.” (Anonymous)

Don’t let the mountain be bigger than the Lord – He knows you can take that next step. We all love to follow Jesus and He climbs mountains every single day. Bye 👋.