Do you have a cliff right in front of you and another to your back? Do you feel stuck not knowing which way to turn? Are the obstacles too big for you to overcome?
Life is hard enough with chronic illness, then add a pandemic, a job loss and grumpy people and the obstacles are too big.
I choose to Climb Up in Faith.
God promises to provide for all of our needs so why wouldn’t I believe Him? Kind of silly not to believe. Especially after He has proven repeatedly that He will provide. He will be there, He will not leave us, He will take care of us, even when all we see are the obstacles.
Here we are, standing on a cliff and it looks grim. So we turn around to head the other way and we find another cliff. Mountain lions are headed toward us. The fog is rolling in and we can’t even see the enemy.
Looks a bit grim.
So what has our walk with Jesus taught us so far? So far, He has always come through, always provided exactly what we needed at every moment. So why is this any different? It’s not.
For some odd reason, I study wars. I like to understand why people make the choices they do in very difficult circumstances. War is some of the toughest life-stuff there is.
When we have chronic illness, it feels like war. When we have a pandemic with an unknown future, it feels like war. When we lose income and have to face the world without resources, it feels like war.
I have practiced “war” so many times that I am getting the hang of it. I certainly am not perfect at it, but given God’s track record, I think I am handling it better than I used to — because He handles it for me.
During war, I no longer hide. I Climb Up in Faith. I actually now expect the Lord to remain by my side and provide, in ALL things. When I have a cliff to my front AND to my back, I keep climbing.
I cannot see the outcome of my Climb Up in Faith, but I know it is good whatever God’s will is. THAT is what removes the battle out of the war for me. I cannot do the impossible, but God can, He already has determined my outcome. And daaaaa-gom-it, He has determined my value as well.
I now get to Climb Up in Faith, with confidence, with hope, with the power of God Almighty. After decades of being a Christian and practicing this, it is finally kind of getting fun.
Life is going to through tough stuff at us, just like it did for Jonathan during wartime. The impossible IS possible when we Climb Up in Faith…
Jonathan Attacks the Philistines
23 Now a detachment of Philistines had gone out to the pass at Mikmash. 14 1 One day Jonathan son of Saul said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But he did not tell his father.
2 Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron. With him were about six hundred men, 3 among whom was Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was a son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord’s priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan had left.
4 On each side of the pass tha1t Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez and the other Seneh. 5 One cliff stood to the north toward Mikmash, the other to the south toward Geba.
6 Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.”
7 “Do all that you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
8 Jonathan said, “Come on, then; we will cross over toward them and let them see us. 9 If they say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them. 10 But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.”
11 So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. “Look!” said the Philistines. “The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.” 12 The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come up to us and we’ll teach you a lesson.”
So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Climb up after me; the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.”
13 Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. 14 In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.
Israel Routs the Philistines
15 Then panic struck the whole army—those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts and raiding parties—and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God.
~ 1 Samuel 13:23-14:15 NIV