Tuesday, August 24: Recharging your batteries

Life is a series of victories and defeats, peaks and valleys, joy and sadness. Interestingly, the line of delineation between each of those apparent opposites reveals that each are closely related. In defeat, there is always victory. Each valley contains a peak to that valley. In the lowest degree of sadness, there is a joy that you have survived and can go no lower.

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you are climbing it.” – Anonymous

Certainly, we all desire the “mountaintop” experience with God, yet sometimes, we forget what that period at the pinnacle entails. Moses spent two consecutive, 40-day periods of fasting alone with God on Mount Sinai. It was a time of powerful and memorable fellowship with the Lord, but during the second period, Moses was pouring out His soul to the Lord to save and not destroy the children of Israel, who had fallen into almost immediate idolatry when Moses journeyed up the mountain to receive the Law. More specifically, Moses ached for the life of his brother Aaron, who had fashioned the golden calf.


18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was angry with you, to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me at that time also. 20 And the LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.
Deuteronomy 9:18-21


Moses prayed for Aaron also. We know that God listened to Moses at other times, as well, and it sounds as though Moses prayed for the people first, and his own family second. How many in our Christian leadership feel that way about those God has entrusted them with? How many are willing to give up food and water for even a day? What this passage reveals is that our prayer should be to never give up on anyone! It doesn’t matter what we have done, or how we have sinned against God. Each of us has our secret closet filled with awful sins, and only God knows the sins behind that door. Fortunately for us, if we repent, God casts those sins deep into the ocean, and He never dredges them up again. Sadly, we sometimes have trouble letting go of the sins that God has forgiven. Instead, we should be more concerned with allowing God to break our hearts because of our sin, for without that effect upon our hearts, the same sin will continue!

“Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find that you have crossed the mountain.” – Anonymous

Each journey is a series of highs and lows. We have moments of high energy and moments when we cannot envision taking another step. But as long as we are walking with the Lord, He recharges our batteries, preparing us for another journey, and another battle. Interestingly, unless you have some distance from the mountain, you can’t even see it! That “alone time” with the Lord on top of the mountain is something to treasure, but as He remains with us throughout every step and every battle, the valleys and ascents are just as special. Be content wherever the Lord has you, for the place He desires for you to be is definitely a special place!


5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5


Now godliness with contentment
is great gain.
1 Timothy 6:6