June 25, 2010
Moving Mountains
Author James B. Stewart describes a scene after a natural disaster by saying, “The only possible human reaction seemed to be a similarly calm and peaceful submission to forces beyond our control.” I think that’s how the majority of us feel when we finally accept and acknowledge that a situation is totally out of our control. However, I can’t always make the same application in spiritual matters. There are always those motivational Scriptures running around in my head that keep me on the edge of having some element of control. ‘Pray and keep on praying…whatever you ask in My name…’ It’s a little hard to have calm and peaceful submission when you know you can move mountains.
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Gail;
-----I think the most important thing to remember about moving mountains is that God is in the mountain moving business. The mountains that actually get moved are those which He determines need moving. Next to bearing this in mind concerning those mountainous obstacles in our personal lives, we must realize our necessity to form a joint venture with Him. History does reveal many mountains He has removed by Himself alone, but this is certainly not the normal course of His action. Usually the conditions of our lives do not change without joining His efforts with our own. And prayer is only the beginning of that.
-----Any mountain must be seen in the light of what it is. Besides the simple facts of its being there and the difficulty it is presenting, the most apparent nature of a mountain is the accumulation of the numerous small stones of which it is made. Picking up one of those stones and carrying it to where good sense reveals it must be is the beginning of the moving process. Yet, this is only after prayerful meditation has concluded a need for its moving. And the continuous picking up and carrying of stones validates the sincerity of prayers regarding the moving of giant boulders and bedrocks encased by the smaller, more manageable stones. At the proper times the giant boulders and bedrocks will be moved to their right places by His business as you move the stones manageable by you. How He moves them is generally His business as well. This type of joint venture seems to be the more normal course of life.
-----The conundrum to which you refer is now obvious. It is generally going to take a great investment of time and effort to move a mountain. Will its removal be worth that investment? Are there alternative ways of successfully dealing with the mountain’s existence? Sometimes there are, and sometimes not. The small stones are certainly within our ability to move, but will we expend major costs getting to the core of the mountain and finding it is not in His will to move the giant boulders? Even if we had initially prayed and concluded moving the mountain was proper and then found Him unwilling to move boulders, maybe it can be determined that we ourselves were the mountainous problem to someone else which He removed for them by busying us on a remote and impossible task.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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