Wall Climbing...Trusting God...Clinging To God

"But he said, “I will not let You go unless you bless me.” - Genesis 32:26

"You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen." - Deuteronomy 10:20-21

"For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments..." - 2 Kings 18:6

I remember many, many years back when wall climbing was not even the widely accepted sport that it is today. There was this place in Tandang Sora where we decided to give it a try. The goal was simple enough. Climb up the wall. Was there a chance of falling back to the ground? None. There was someone "belaying" you, making sure that even if your grip slipped you wouldn't fall.

All I had to do was use each small stump on the wall as a handhold or foothold to give me leverage going up. Easy enough in principle but in application it was really painful. My hands and fingers were not used to it and not strong enough. I could barely hold on long enough with my fingers to propel me to the next handhold. I could barely hold on long enough with my feet and legs to propel me, and anchor me to the next foothold. Amazingly, wall climbers who have been doing this long enough seemed to do it with ease. Their hands, fingers and body were strong enough through practice. They could easily hold on till they saw the next handhold or foothold and propel themselves to it.

I can't help but compare this to the Christian life. The goal is simple enough. Know (sakal and yada:Hebrew) Christ and make Him known. This is the "top of the wall". Is there a chance for us to lose our salvation? None. Just like the safety given by the person "belaying" me. There is no more condemnation for those in Christ. My position in Him will not change. I will not be moving up, I may slip and lose my grip from time to time but I will not fall back down to the ground.

How do we get there? There are footholds, handholds that help us get to the top. These are found in His word. His commands. His promises. His character. These are what we cling to to get to the top. Is it painful to hang on to these promises? To obey these commands? You bet! At first it will get painful because we are not used to it yet. Also, one thing I'm learning is that in principle its easy to hold on to these promises. But its a totally different thing altogether when application time comes. Its easy to find these promises and quote them to a brother or sister going through something. Unfortunately, if you are like me, when it is I that is going through something, its a bit more difficult and sometimes even painful to hang on to these handholds/footholds.Yet with practice our fingers, our muscles become stronger and our journey to the top of the wall gets easier.

Also, there are no elevators to the top. God reveals Himself, His power and faithfulness progressively, handhold by handhold, foothold by foothold. Like a lamp unto our feet guiding us with light enough, hope enough to make the next step forward in the journey.

If like me you are climbing, struggling, wrestling to reach the top of the wall in your Christian life and find that sometimes you slip. Keep going. Earnestly look for those handholds. Earnestly look for those footholds. Cling to them. Hold on to them. Don't let go. Keep going. Don't let the accusations of the enemy get you down. You are safe. Jesus is your safety. His finished work on the cross "belays" you. Keep going. Keep looking up. Keep climbing. We are almost there.

Have a great week everyone! God bless us all :)

Reflecting On My Idols

Reflecting On My Idols

This morning my reading plan brought me to Leviticus 26; and Mark 2. 
The passage in Leviticus led me to realize that I had to 1) check my heart for idols, anything that I have placed before God, anything, any person that I´ve come to value, prioritize more than God. 2) it also described the rewards of obedience to God in this; 3) lastly, it also illustrates the penalties of disobedience.

"You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God..." - Leviticus 26:1

The dictionary defines idols as:
- An image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.
- A person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered:

As I reflected on this, I had to start asking myself, if there is anything or anyone getting in the way of, or taking my heart away from focusing on my God. Am I loving God with all my heart and soul and might or have I set aside tiny nooks of my heart and reserved them for myself and my idols thinking that it would be ok since most of my heart and soul and might are for God anyway? Then I remembered...:

"You shall love the Lord your God with "ALL" your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." - Deuteronomy 6:5

My QT plan for the past month involved reading one Psalm each day. Interestingly today I was at Psalm 49. This Psalm talks about the folly/futility of pursuing and trusting riches and taking pride in one´s own accomplishments.

"...Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich,
When the glory of his house is increased;
For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
His glory will not descend after him.
Though while he lives he congratulates himself—
And though men praise you when you do well for yourself—
He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
They will never see the light.
Man in his pomp, yet without understanding,
Is like the beasts that perish." - Psalm 49:16-20

Has the pursuit of riches, recognition, and reward taken up some small space in my heart-a heart that was meant to be for God alone? Have I foolishly been thinking, "I can take a little credit, deserve some reward or recognition, relish some praise for myself, save some riches for my own use, etc.?"

This brought me back full-circle to the passage in Leviticus 26, where it says:

"...If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit...I shall also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword;...So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you...Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people..."- Leviticus 26: 6-12

There is nothing inherently wrong with riches, rewards or recognition. God Himself promises to generously give His people all of these (Matt. 6:33) on the condition that we love, obey and seek Him "FIRST" and not the other way around. Thinking that we will seek success, fame, riches and reward and glorify God with them is flawed thinking.

God is glorified when we love, obey and seek Him first and we are rewarded by Him with success and everything else that comes along with it because then people will see God and not the "idol" which is our own effort of pursuing success.

Self-Sufficiency, Independence vs. God Sufficiency, God Dependence

Exodus 4:1-11
1 Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”

Here I see that Moses was reluctant to obey because his focus was on himself and not on God. If we look more closely at the verse we see the following: “not believe ME”, “what I say”, “not appeared to ME (you)”. Many times I am hindered from obeying God because I look at the impossibility of the circumstances / situations I am in and then I look at myself and my resources and capabilities and realize my inadequacy.

2The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.” 3 Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.

God never intended for me to be adequate and sufficient in and of myself. (John 15:5)
In verses 2-3, I see God asking Moses to let go/throw what it was he was holding onto in his hand. At this point in his life, Moses was a shepherd. The staff he was holding onto represented all that he was. It was only by letting this go (i.e. throwing it to the ground) that he was able to see God´s power.

Has my confidence, pride, dependence on who I am and what I have over-shadowed my confidence, trust dependence on who God is and what He can do? Am I holding on to something that is preventing us from “fully” experiencing God´s power in my life?

4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand—

Another interesting insight I can glean from this passage is in verse 4. The preceding verse (v.3) tells us “Moses fled from it” (i.e. the staff turned serpent). He was afraid. God uses this as an opportunity to increase Moses´ faith by asking him to “stretch out his hand” and hold it. This was literally a stretching of his faith. I imagine Moses could have said “Ok, Lord I believe You already can we just skip the touching of the snake part?” Had this been the case, he (Moses) would have robbed himself of the opportunity to experience God even more as He transforms the snake back into a staff.

Am I in a situation where God is asking us to take that “leap of faith”, to “stretch out our hand (by faith) and receive what He has laid up in store for me?

There will be times when God will grant me precious opportunities like this to “stretch my faith.” Just like in running. When I started running, I could barely run 1 km. But each day, I would run a little further, a few meters more with each day. Today, I can now run 3km. The farther I push myself to run, the further I am able to run in the end. I believe the same holds true for my faith. The more I stretch and exercise my “faith muscles” the further I can trust God and the greater my experience of Him will be. It boils down to a choice of whether I remain where I am or take that leap and know Him, His faithfulness and power even more.

5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

By allowing God to “work in me and through me” instead of thinking that I “work for Him” I, and hopefully the people around me, see and experience His power. I see this principle applied and reinforced in the way God worked through David as well. David´s focus as he faced Goliath was not on his own capabilities and resources but on God.

In 1 Samuel 17:37; 46-47, David shows us the condition of his heart in contrast to the condition of Moses´ heart in Exodus 4:1;10. David says:

1 Samuel 17:37 ”And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

1 Samuel 17:46-47 “This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. …that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.”

The lesson I learn here is that in the end however impossible the situations I might face, success will ultimately depend on my answer to one question: “ Will I be self-sufficient or God-sufficient, independent or God-dependent in this situation?”