Day 10 - Difficulties

Isaiah 40: 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.

Isaiah is speaking here about the coming of the Messiah - verse 3  is  "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God."   But if I just look at verse 4 I am seeing hope  - the valley shall be raised up.  Sometimes when I am blue I sing in the car, a hymn that goes - Lord lead me to the mountain because I've been in the valley far to long.  The valleys are the low spots in our life and they shall be raised up.  The mountain,  which could represent those mountain of problems you got going, will be made low and yes, the rough patch that you are experiencing; well,  it will even out.

How you might ask?  I think the answer is prayer.  I have been listening to a Joyce Meyer tape on worry and there is just something so common sense about it.  She said if you are worried don't be, worry doesn't solve the problem, pray on it.  If there is something good praise God for it. 

We forget sometimes to thank God for the little things in life, like a perfect peach, or a sunny day.  Recently we were called back to work full time.  Not being a fan of getting up 6:30 am morning I still praised God  for being able to work 8 to 5.  If I was first I came in singing Good Morning office, thank you Lord for  another week of work.  But then on Thursday we got told we were going back to part time.  I think Barb at the office said it best, it was like all the air got sucked out of the office.  After a year and 4 months on part time, we already know how low the valleys will be, how high the mountain of problems will be and how rough the road will be next week.  So on Friday, on the way to work I praise God for the last three weeks of full time work and just prayed for help for the next.  It's all we can do really, to think positively.  Handle the problems one by one-- there's a promise somewhere at the end of all this. 

So, even if you are having a bad day, try to be grateful for at least one thing and thank God for it.  Life is full of  adventures, some better than others.  

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.  Let us move forward with strong and active faith"  - F.D.R.

Day 2: Mount Zion

So here I am, day two from the mountain top, even though I am not actually there.  I guess you could say that instead of me going to the mountains, I am having the mountains come to me.

Today's mountain scripture is from Psalm 48 -

¹ Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise,
    in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

² Beautiful in its loftiness,
    the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon  is Mount Zion,
    the city of the Great King.
³ God is in her citadels;
    he has shown himself to be her fortress. 

The first verse I knew the moment I saw it because I have sang that line in anthems, praising God.  The whole psalm, which is 14 verses long reflects on Mount Zion being the seat of God, and how God has protected it.  Even though Mount Zion is not geographically the highest  in the region, it is the "highest" because God had chosen it.  It's funny how the different gods of the time had their own mountains.  Mount Zaphon was home to El - chief of the gods of the Phoenicians and of course, Mount Olympus, home to Zeus and the Greek gods.  


The psalm is a celebration of the joy in the security of Mount Zion, the psalmist suggest that the city was secure from all forms of attack with its towers, ramparts and citadels.  But it was God who did the protecting, not the walls surrounding Mount Zion.  Beautiful in its loftiness, that sounds so wonderful, you can almost picture it.  


This psalm and these scriptures tell me to praise God, because He is worthy of praise, He is our protector and our fortress in the toughest of times.  If we seek our refuge in God we cannot be destroyed spiritually because simply, God cannot be destroyed, he is truly our tower, rampart and citadel.  He is truly worthy of our praise, faith and trust.


This psalm ends very powerfully, with this verse.  14 - For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end.


Amen to that.