Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Walking on the Low Ground

My Utmost For His Highest
 
‘The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained’ CHAMBERS
 
Even a casual reading of the Bible reveals the struggle to keep the focus on God and not the circumstances.  As I read about the nation  of Israel and the people’s very short memory … it is easy for me to be critical.  God worked in such powerful ways on their behalf, yet it wasn’t long after those might acts that they acted as if He had never done anything for them .. as if He was absent.  And then I consider my own life.  I remember that I am not so different from them.  When I face my next giant, I don’t always remember who is with me .. who is my strength .. so I stand trembling in the face of the issue at hand.  Like the men of Israel before Goliath.  But David, still a young boy, faced him, knowing that God was on his side.  He knew that there was nothing too hard for God.
 
Don’t you know that the world is watching?  As you face life in the valley.  Trusting in God in spite of what is going on around you, that your light is shining brightly … giving testimony to the power and grace and mercy of God.  Showing the world what faith looks like.  What a difference the power of faith makes in the life of a person living in the valley.
 
2 Corinthians 4:6-11  For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  (7)  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.  (8)  We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;  (9)  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed-- (10)  always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  (11)  For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.’
 
Let God use your life as a light to show those around you the way to the Cross.
 
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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