Sometimes, fighting my own thoughts feels like climbing a mountain. There are slippery slopes, jagged, painful edges, and dangerous cliffs. Being out of my comfort zone can bring on thoughts that are not based on truth and, hence, a mountain climbing expedition! I recently found myself outside of my comfort zone and started questioning my worth and abilities. I began assuming what others were thinking of me. None of the thoughts were ones that I should’ve considered true, yet there I was thinking upon them. They felt high and unscalable as if they could weigh me down low underneath them; keeping me from moving forward with what I believe God wanted me to do.
I had to ask myself, “Am I truly grasping the height of God’s love?
His love is higher than these thoughts that seem hard to get past. I had to remember the truth about who He is and who I am in Him to move past them properly.
Is there something you are tempted to think about yourself or God that isn’t true? Are the challenges real or imagined? God has given us great imaginations, hasn’t He? Have you taken into consideration the truth that your God is with you, even above you and your challenge? Have you used your wonderful imagination to think upon the breadth, width, length, and height of God’s love?
Some Wisdom from Bunyan on this
“There are heights also that build up themselves in us, which are not but to be taken notice of: Yes, there are a many of them, and they place themselves directly so, that if possible they may keep the saving knowledge of God out of our hearts. These high things, therefore, are said to exalt themselves against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:5); and do offtimes more plague, afflict, and frighten Christian men and women, than any thing besides. It is from these that our faith and spiritual understanding of God, and his Christ is opposed and contradicted, and from these also that we are so inclinable to swerve from right doctrine into destructive opinions.
‘Tis from these that we are so easily persuaded to call into question our former experience of the goodness of God toward us, and from these that our minds are so often clouded and darkened that we cannot see afar off. These would betray us into the hands of fallen angels, and men, nor should we by any means help or deliver ourselves, were it not for the one that is higher. These are the dark mountains at which our feet would certainly stumble, and upon which we should fall, were it not for one who can leap and skip over these mountains of division, and come in to us (Song of Sol. 2:8, 17).”
John Bunyan, All Loves Excelling
Our challenges are big, but they are not higher than God himself!
“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”
Colossian 2:9-10, ESV
There is an enemy who would like to use challenges, even good ones, and our thinking about them, as stumbling blocks or high places that might set themselves up in our minds against the knowledge of God’s love. It is then that I…we…must turn away from wasteland thinking and turn toward Jesus, His grace, and His kingdom.
Turn with me, again, toward Graceland!
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV
Let’s fix your eyes on Jesus.
Run with endurance, He is with us. He has gone before us blazing a trail through pain, challenges, and difficulty toward the joy waiting in heaven
Will you allow yourself to be revived by Him who revives?
“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
Isaiah 57:15, ESV
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.“
Thank you for joining me as I plucked encouragement from John Bunyan’s book, All Loves Excelling. We have come to the end and it’s time to say goodbye for now to this lovely work.
Would you like your own copy of All Loves Excelling?
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Do you appreciate the regular questions I ask on this blog? If so, you would also like the booklet I’ve put together called
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Linking up this week with these lovely bloggers!
Amy, I so appreciate this paragraph >>> “There is an enemy who would like to use challenges, even good ones, and our thinking about them, as stumbling blocks or high places that might set themselves up in our minds against the knowledge of God’s love. It is then that I…we…must turn away from wasteland thinking and turn toward Jesus, His grace, and His kingdom.” Amen! We cannot allow the enemy to paralyze us in our thinking. We must be proactive – both turning away from wrong thinking and turning toward Jesus. We cannot remain stagnate. Thank you for this entire series and linking it up as it was a blessing to me!
Joanne, thanks so much for reading the posts in this series and commenting. I am so glad it was a blessing! Let’s keep turning toward grace!
Oh I am so moved by this question: “Will you allow yourself to be revived by Him who revives?” He is waiting right here to show me more about the depths of His love if I will allow Him. Thank you so much for this series, Amy. It has been so encouraging!
Yes, I want to live in Graceland too! “Turn away from wasteland thinking and turn toward Jesus, His grace, and His kingdom.”