Higher Ground (from Joni and Friends Devotional)

Higher Ground

You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.
-- 2 Samuel 22:37

When I was a kid, my family once headed to the Rockies for vacation. After we crossed the border from Nebraska into Colorado, I searched the horizon for the first signs of the mountains. Soon I saw them, rising off the plain like a craggy, frightening fortress.

We drove a beat-up old Dodge truck, and I worried that we would never make it to those high peaks. The road from Denver twisted and turned; the engine groaned. Dad kept switching gears, all the while keeping a close watch on the temperature gauge. Would we make it to the top? Even if we did, all I could imagine was being stranded on the spike of some mountain spire.

Was I in for a surprise when we finally did arrive at the summit. As we rounded the last peak at Kenosha Pass, the road sloped out onto a high, broad mountain plateau. As far as the eye could see, there was flat grassland with small ranches and cows grazing. We left the prickly spires of the front range behind and spent the rest of the time on the higher ground of the mountain plateau.

That's the Christian life. Our trials appear to be mountainous obstacles looming ahead of us. We see frightening heights from which we could fall, scary ledges to stumble off of, pinnacles that make our heads spin. And we question what's waiting for us at the crest of our trial. But once we arrive by God's grace, we find we have climbed to a higher plain. That's what 2 Samuel 22:37 describes.

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Are you facing a mountainous trial today? It's not as scary as you think. The Lord knows where He's leading you; it's not a dizzying height. You, too, can live on higher ground.

Make me mindful today, Father God, that You are leading me over tough terrain to a broad path. When I feel afraid, help me to picture that beautiful plateau.