Climbing that mountain

Monday I started a Bible study called Walk of Repentance. The first week’s focus is on obedience to authority and how I am to have the mind of Christ in His obedience to His Father. Today pointed me to verses showing what He gave up for my sake, making me aware again that obedience is costly.

This study also makes me aware that if I want to be like Jesus, then I must be prepared to yield all my rights and desires. Being like Jesus involves seeing Him as He is. I cannot pick and choose the qualities about Him that might feel good or be popular or win friends.

Spurgeon’s reading for today is about going higher too, and about seeing Jesus by working my way up there. He points to this verse:

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” (Isaiah 40:9)

Spurgeon writes about his homeland and mountain climbing. His words are delightful, yet sobering. I’ve edited and personalized them.

When I am at the base of a mountain, the mountain itself appears only one-half as high as it really is. If I stay in the valley, I will discover only rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the foot of the mountain. But if I climb the first rising knoll, the valley lengthens and widens beneath my feet. If I go higher, I will see the country for four or five miles round and be delighted with the widening prospect. If I climb higher, the scene enlarges. If I reach the summit and look around, I will see the vastness of the land, perhaps a forest in the distance, even two hundred miles away. Depending where I climb, I might see the sea and a shining river and the smoking chimneys of a town, or the masts of the ships in a busy port. All these things will please and delight me. I might say, “I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation.”

The Christian life is like this. When I first believed in Christ I could see only a little of Him. The higher I climb the more I discover of His glory. Yet who has ever gained the summit? Who has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than I can, “I know whom I have believed,” for each experience he had was like climbing a hill. Each trial was like ascending another summit and his death seemed like gaining the top of the mountain. There he could see the whole faithfulness and love of the One whom he had committed his soul.

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Lord, You know that I am a valley person. I don’t like heights nor do I like the big picture view as much as the details on safer ground. However, You bid me to know You in increasing measure. You ask me to look at You, think of You, keep my heart open to Your revelations of Yourself. At times this is much like a climb up a steep and rocky place. I fear missteps and falling. I get tremendously tired and am challenged by each step. However, as Spurgeon says, then there is the view! The closer You draw me to Yourself, the more I see, and the more I see, the more I want to see. Guard my focus, guide my steps and keep me climbing!