Choices. We face them daily and they are for whatever reason the way the Lord designed us to walk through life here on earth. From what toys to play with as a child, to what college to go to, to what career to follow, to who to marry, and what to believe. Hardly anything is designed for us absent of the ability to choose.
In the bible there is a specific choice that I found revelatory through the story of Elijah.
It was the choice between the cave or the mountaintop.
If you have been traveling with me through my blog I hope you have found strength in turning things around and finding hope that there is purpose in your life no matter what struggles you may face or deficiency you may be feeling. I hope you have been working diligently on making a comeback to live the abundant life you have been called to live.
In 1 Kings 19, Elijah found himself at rock bottom, just like so many of us have. He sat under a tree begging for the Lord to take His life because the pressures were too hard. Instead the Lord sent an angel to give him strength. Refueled and ready to pick himself up, it was time for him to move on from a place of defeat to what the Lord had for him next.
My hope and prayer is that you have been able to experience this divine restrengthening to continue your journey with the Lord as well. God will provide this strength for us to keep going but where we go from there is up to us.
As Elijah traveled he came to the mountain of God. When he got there he found shelter in a cave. Have you ever been caught in a place you shouldn't have been or been exploring or playing with something that you didn't know was unsafe and then your parent walked in the room? Just by the tone of their question you immediately knew you were wrong. I think this is how it was for Elijah when God spoke to him in the cave. God came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” I can just hear these words being said to me by my mom or dad after catching me in a place I shouldn’t be, can’t you?! It was evident by God’s question that being in the cave was not the best choice. God proposed this question and then redirected Elijah saying, “Go out on the mountain and stand in the presence of the Lord.”
Elijah chose the cave but the Lord preferred the alternate choice of being on the mountaintop.
So when we’ve finally found the strength to take some steps forward and leave old ways behind, how do we know if we’ve progressed just to go straight into the cave or if we’ve found ourself placed among the mountaintop of God’s presence?
I am going to do something different this week and split this blog into a series of 2 posts.
Today I want to help you recognize if you are in the cave.
THE CAVE
Recognizing you are in a cave is hard. It’s safe right? Why not go inside? It provides us protection from the unknown and keeps us covered. Well unfortunately for our comfort zone the Lord didn’t give us His strength to keep going just so we could play it safe in the cave. The Lord knows that the cave may look safe to us and feel safe to us but it is an imposter to a God that calls himself shelter and refuge. The cave is a counterfeit option of security and we often don’t even realize we have chosen it. But there are a few characteristics of the cave I want to point out to help us determine if we are there.
A cave is dark. Being in a cave is leaning on securities and comforts other than the Lord and it will hinder our sight. So ask yourself, is it hard to change or expand your perspective? Are you feeling hindered from seeing the whole picture? Can you see opportunities other than just the ones that are right in front of you? On a rating scale from 1 to 10 where is your imagination? The cave hinders our sight from being able to see ALL of the possibilities God may have for us. You may have finally accepted God’s call on your life to pursue a different career but are you leaping out in COMPLETE FAITH or are you slowly letting go of where you’ve been? You may be believing that it is safer if you stay involved with the old company just incase things don’t turn around for you as quickly as you hope? Did you leave a relationship you knew was keeping you from your purpose and close the door or did you just distance yourself some just incase your dreams “don't work out?” The darkness of the cave will keep us from feeling confident in the Lord’s faithfulness to provide.
The cave has an echo. Every noise in the cave inevitably echoes back to you. For the enemy, this is a dream territory. Every negative thought, lie, or ungodly pattern in your life can be thrown back at you with infinite force over and over again. Do you have repeated patterns of thoughts or actions that keep rickashaying back to haunt you? If you do, that is a great indicator that you’ve have found comfort in a cave. The lies keep bouncing back with more force, and instead of flowing faith, our disbelief and doubt seem to be echoing. When these recurring voices and situations keep coming back it makes it so hard to hear the whisper of God’s voice.
The cave is cold. There’s no ability for the sun to warm us with it’s light in the cave and being cold is not comfortable. You go to your cave in hopes of comfort but you always feel as if you are alone and without. Do you often feel like you are isolated and/or lacking support? This is also a huge indicator that you have submitted to the fear of the mountaintop and are crouching in a cave when your destiny is right outside the opening.
New is scary and it makes sense that we would want to find something that we know will provide a certain level of safety when we are scared. But you have to remember. The cave is a counterfeit comfort. It is a trap to keep you from experiencing God in full! Make sure you read next week so you can hear about the choice of the mountaintop. Why is the mountaintop the better choice?
No comments:
Post a Comment