Saturday, October 3, 2009

The Mountains and The Valley

I've been reading through My Utmost for his Highest by Oswald Chambers the last few days, and this particular part was a huge eye opener for me.

The Place of Exaltation

. . . Jesus took . . . them up on a high mountain apart by themselves . . . —Mark 9:2

We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18 ). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.

We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, "What’s the use of this experience?" We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.



Jonathan

-- Post From My iPhone

5 comments:

AlotlikeKARA said...

God led me to your blog today... I really needed this. the past couple of days have been so rough for me and it's amazing when God just shows up. God is so good!!!

Bleah Briann//Lovely said...

I'd really, really, like to follow this blog but IDK how. Please help me! :)

graciegirl said...

i really liked this blog!

(yes... i am slow) im guessin it is a book... is it a good book? i would like to read it if so!

Ida Lou said...

wow...
I needed that more than i thought.

Sara said...

I read that devotional. It's really cool to find that it is affecting your life too. That is amazing. Thanks for sharing. :)

Also Bleah Briann, to follow take the url from the main page and copy it. Then go to your dashboard, and the blogs I'm following section, click add, and paste in the address.