Up Hill

 Let me ask you a question: when someone is running, what is the biggest obstacle you think they may face?  I think it is the hills.

When I jogged, the hills used to get me the most.  I lived on a hill at one time and when I started jogging I either had to go up the hill or down but usually when I was coming to the end of my run I would have to run up hill.  Even though I didn’t like the hills, when I first started running it may have been what got me in the best shape and eventually the hills got easier and I didn’t mind them, in fact I used to look for hills I could run because I knew they were what I needed to help me progress more and build my endurance.

I had worked out with weights for many years.  Sometimes I felt good and other times I struggled to even get started.  What I thought was strange about my workout days was the days I seemed to have to drag myself, literally forcing myself to get started, by the time I had finished my workout I felt they were some of my best workout days I had experienced, because to my surprise in a short time I would feel so much better.  I think in those days I learned endurance, also if I wanted to gain muscle and strength and endure pain it would come at a price.

I think those lessons have helped me in my Christian walk.  If we are going to build spiritual muscles, it will take spiritual strength, endurance, pain tolerance and other qualities to be an overcomer.  Sometimes the Christian walk can seem easy with most things falling into place, like dominoes, where it seems like you are floating on a cloud, so to speak.  Some relate these times as mountaintop experiences, or maybe a revival, sort of like running on level ground.  

But, you don’t always stay in those situations very long before you experience what may be called a valley experience where you might feel like you are running uphill but not quite making it to the top.  At these times it seems like everything is out of control and nothing is going right.  You may experience problems you had never anticipated or experienced before, things you were not prepared for, things that are very discouraging.  At these times you may start questioning the Lord, wondering what is going on and why they are happening to you.

I want to encourage you today; if you feel like you are going uphill, you are probably going in the right direction.  Life seems to be full of pitfalls and problems, it seems like you no more than conquer one giant and you are facing three or more, at that time it seems like you are always fighting an uphill battle.  In the struggles and uphill battles is where you learn some of your most important lessons.  Think of Job in his trials, it might have felt like it was the biggest uphill battle of his life but when it was over he was a far better man for it.  He not only benefitted from the experience but so did his three friends, his wife and others who knew about his problems and in the end because he stayed faithful he was extremely blessed. 

Job said this in Job 42:1-6:

“Then Job answered the Lord and said:

‘I know that You can do everything,

And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

Listen, please, and let me speak;

You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’

‘I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,

But now my eye sees You.

Therefore I abhor myself,

And repent in dust and ashes.’”

Sometimes you will learn in the hard times, things that seem much harder to learn when you are on the mountaintop, so to speak, just like Job learned.

And what about Joseph, the first part of his life seemed to be an uphill battle also, but when it was all said and done he was instrumental in saving his whole family, something he could not have imagined years earlier.  I could talk of others also and even my own struggles and the things that I learned and how I benefitted because of them, but I think you got the picture.  You can either respond to your struggles negatively, and not benefit from them, or you can respond to them with a positive attitude and, in the end be so much better off because of them, it is always our choice.

Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  If Jesus overcame, so can we with His help.  So hang in there and never give up, if the Lord helped those who went before us to overcome, He will help us also.  Praise the Lord!! Something to think about and may the Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!