OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL For Friday 8 November 2013 "FACING MOUNTAINS" BY PASTOR E. A ADEBOYE
Memory Verse: Zechariah 4:7 "Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it."
Read: Numbers 14:1-4: And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
Message
Once in a while we are faced with mountains, but the question is: How do you handle the mountain confronting you? It is possible while facing a mountain to turn back and refuse to continue moving forward. This was the initial response of the children of Israel in Numbers 14:1-4. They encountered a mountain and they decided to go back to Egypt. This is a very wrong way to handle a mountain. Is somebody standing in your way, hindering you from achieving success on a given project? Have you resolved to dump the project because of that? Those who give up after encountering a mountain are feeble hearted and still relying on their limited strength. Hebrews 10:38 says if you turn back from a divine course, you will cease to be God's delight. He will no longer have pleasure in you. Have you down tools, stopped work, returned from your field of assignment or gone into your shell because you met a mountain on your way? Immediately go back to that assignment and restart what you stopped before God changes His mind concerning you! Never quit an assignment, good deed or project because of a mountain. It is just too negligible compared to our God!
Another response to progress challenging mountains is to walk along the base of such mountains. Such response is a wasted effort. When you have a problem and you do nothing about it other than to keep staring at it and wondering what to do about the problem, you are simply walking along its base. Also, when you have a problem but you either ignore it or say disheartened prayers about it, you are only walking along its base. Such weak efforts will be wasted. Closely allied to this, is a situation where you try to solve a problem by applying the wrong measures. You will surely get nothing out of such efforts! Turn your problem to the Lord and He will take care of them.
Action Point
It is the right step that gives you result, not just any step. Ask for grace to always take the right step in handling mountains.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : PSALM 46 - 48