“Man, I was walking uphill the entire time!” It’s what I thought when I looked back over the stretch of road I had just walked near my Dead Sea hotel. I’d been walking 4.5-7 miles per day 7 days a week for a few months so my heart and breathing never changed even though I’d been walking up hill.
Then there’s the Snake Path up the side of Masada. We weren’t able climb it this year due to rainy conditions. Yet in years past, my heart and lungs would definitely let me know I was walking uphill. My legs would even throw in their two cents.
On one walk I didn’t recognize my need for help while on another I did. The difference was my conditioning. My body had been trained to handle one hill, but was struggling to catch up to the other.
Jesus uses life’s uphill climbs to strengthen our faith and replace our worn out character with His. He strengthens our faith so we can face our daily challenges without skipping a heart beat. Some want to stay there, however, so God allows us to face bigger hills that will hopefully create the desire within us to know Him better. It’s only as we face new challenges that we are forced to realize that our worn character (i.e. flesh) can’t cut it and needs to be replaced with Jesus.
You can either embrace and walk up the hill and meet your God at the top (though He’s walking every step with you) or stand at the bottom looking up wondering what it would be like to know who your Jesus is.
Uphill climbs are good for us. They hopefully force us to say, “Lord help me!” Some of the strongest words we can ever say. Uphill climbs are good for us. They help us see that our faith in Jesus continually needs to grow. Uphill climbs are good for us. They’re used by the Spirit to make us more like Jesus, if I let them.
Stop wondering and start experiencing your Jesus today. Oh by the way, uphill climbs are good for you!
Set Free Now“W”w