I look up to the mountains

Dear friends in Christ,

As always I want to begin by giving glory and honour to God for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you. I am so thankful and so blessed. I would also like to thank you for spending your precious time to read my thoughts and I pray that God will bless you today and every day.

We are all blessed in many ways but even so we all face trials and challenges in our lives. Today I would like to write about where we turn to for help when the troubles overwhelm us. For me personally Psalm 121 is one of the most powerful Psalms and it has been in my thoughts and on my lips for a couple of weeks now and the more I think about it, the more meaningful it becomes. “I will lift up my eyes to the hills- from whence comes my help?” (Ps 121:1)

When I read this I always try to imagine what the psalmist felt when he wrote it. I see someone, in utter desperation and totally alone looking up at these vast blue mountains, his eyes searching for answers. Interesting that in ancient times many nations like the Greeks, Tibetans, Incas and many other nations believed that their gods lived in the mountains. Mountains were also where people found refuge and security in times of war. In the bible we find that mountains were where God’s people went to make sacrifices and where God made covenants with His people, so mountains were very meaningful in those times and it would make sense to think that someone in trouble or in the midst of a challenge would fix his eyes upon the mountains to search or ask for help.

In our modern day and times we tend to think about mountains in a different way. To us a mountain symbolises a challenge. People will often talk about some challenge in their lives that seems like a mountain before them, too big to climb. People lose their lives physically, trying to climb Mount Everest, K2 and Kilimanjaro. Why? It’s about the thrill of the challenge. To prove that they can conquer the danger and stand at the peak satisfied that they did it.

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills- from whence comes my help?” What hills and mountains do you have in your life? And where do you run to for help, for safety, security or a hiding place when you are facing Kilimanjaro?? Do you turn to friends and family? Your lawyer? A holiday far away? A loan from your bank? Medication? Addictions? Revenge? Cheating on your spouse?  The list goes on and on. We can all write down the things we run to when hard times hit and many times these things end up being mountains themselves. Things are going bad at home, so you start staying out later, working longer hours. You then meet someone at the office who also chooses to escape from an unhappy marriage by putting in extra time at the office. One thing leads to another and you end up having an affair. Now your mountain has doubled in size.

Things are not good financially; you are struggling to keep your head above water. You start drinking, because you think it at least takes the stress away. You end up with an addiction and a family who has to cope with your drinking and even less money because you spend the money you do earn to feed your addiction. It’s a big mountain you now have to climb. How many such cases can you think of?

It is heart breaking and the question is why? Why do we turn to all these different things when we are facing our mountains? Psalm 121 clearly states “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth?” Why don’t we just ask God then? Why would we struggle forth and look for help everywhere else when God is waiting, ready to help? We don’t ask, dear friends, because we don’t have faith. Asking God for help means we actually have to have faith that He is able to help and many of us, me included, struggle to have enough faith to trust God with our problems.

I find it much easier to have faith when someone else needs help. I will gladly get up and pray for healing when someone is ill or proclaim victory in the Name of Jesus over a challenge that a friend is facing and I will do so with faith that overcomes all doubt and I have seen God react to that faith.

But when it comes to my own mountains, I struggle to have faith because now I have to believe Hebrews 11:1 and proclaim it over my own challenges. It can be a difficult thing to do because when it’s about the trials in your own life, you open yourself up to potential disappointment when you put your trust in someone.

Dear friends, we need to remember that God is not one of us. God is not going to let you down. He will not allow your foot to stumble; He will not let you fall. He is trustworthy. Just read Psalm 121:3-8 and open your eyes to the promises of God’s faithfulness. It’s almost as if the psalmist could foresee that we would reply to his statement in verse 2 with doubt, so immediately he gives us the reason why we should ask our help from God. The whole psalm is a promise of God’s faithfulness.

These days when I find myself staring up at a treacherous mountain, and I feel my soul fill with fear, I choose to repeat Psalm 121 and I choose to trust My God, who has NEVER let me down before and NEVER will and when I still find myself doubting, I open my bible and turn to Matt17:20 where Jesus, my Lord and Saviour personally made this promise to me and you. “…for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’, and IT WILL MOVE; and NOTHING will be impossible for you.”

It’s easy to forget that our trust is safe with God, but when this happens; don’t turn to other things in search of help. Let’s turn to our bible and feast on all the promises of His faithfulness until our cups run over. Then, let’s hand our mountains, together with our mustard seed faith, to the One who will make our paths straight. (Prov 3:5-6.)

Dear Lord, thank You for Your Word that IS the truth. Thank You for promise upon promise that You are faithful and that we can put our trust in You. Help us Father, not to lean on our own understanding, but to trust You with all our hearts, so that we can see with our own eyes how You turn our mountains into straight paths. Lord ,You are everything and You are all I need.

Amen.

Be fearless in Christ.

Lizz

(Scriptures are taken from the NKJV, unless stated differently.)