February 2, 2014

In Your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall. – Psalm 18:29

For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. 
They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone. – Psalm 91:11-12

For we walk by faith, not by sight. – 2 Corinthians 5:7

In today’s Jesus Calling devotional book by Sarah Young, the call is to follow Jesus one step at a time and that is all that He requires of me.  “Keep your mind on the present journey, enjoying His Presence” she writes.  I might see mountains looming that we are to scale, but how can I look at them and say I can’t do it.  I don’t even know which way the path leads; it might easily go around the mountains, “walk by faith, not by sight”.  But if it does go over, Jesus promises that He will equip me thoroughly for those cliffs, “with my God I can scale any wall” and “He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.”

I learned while hiking mountains, that when you don’t think you can climb anymore you are not focused on the right thing.  Instead of looking at the top of the mountain, which is your true goal, focus on the next step. The size of the step doesn’t matter.  What matters is you take the next step and don’t fall down.  You might have to rest every 10 steps or every 10 minutes, but focus on your next step – put your next step directly in front of the last one on the trail (if there is one).  Then, before you know it, you look up and you are really close to the top.

I tend to lose focus way to easily following Jesus.  He calls for me to go this way and I look up and try to figure out why.  Do I really need to know?  Do I think I can figure out His plan?  Do I need to have a purpose larger than His?  Who do I think I am not immediately replying with “Yes Sir!”  I need to be more focused on the path because I’m so clumsy I’ll trip over a pebble on the path, much less be able to know the extent of the path or understand it.

Recently, Michele Womble, a missionary in Novosibirsk, Russia, posted on her site about her experience having a hysterectomy there in Siberia.  She describes very well how walking that path behind Jesus not knowing the why or what will happen, but trusting Jesus and staying on the path was for her during this time.  When I commented to her about it, she said “I’m still amazed at how it was suddenly so clear when we hadn’t even considered that option before.  But so often God tells us the way to go when we get to it, not ahead of time.”

… one step at a time Jesus, one step at a time …