Every Christian experiences answered prayer. Every Christian experiences unanswered prayer. It’s easy to appreciate the former and then to move on, but unanswered prayer sticks with us: the illness that persists, the job opening that doesn’t come, the ongoing difficulties we all face and may, in many cases, have prayed about fervently. We see this situation in the apostle Paul’s admission regarding a problem he prayed about unsuccessfully: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me” (2 Cor. 12:8). Apparently Paul’s prayers were unanswered in this case.
So why unanswered prayer? Only God knows the answer to this question for specific cases, but the Bible gives us at least three reasons, and it’s possible to think of at least one more that we should keep in mind. First, as the Bible often states, the prayers of the unrighteous go unheard (John 9:31); but this was clearly not the situation in Paul’s case, any more than it is for many who are sincerely trying to walk according to God’s commandments.
The apostle James gives an additional warning: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3). Remember James was writing to believers, not to unbelievers, so perhaps we should examine our motivation whenever our prayer does goes unanswered. There are also doubtless times when God knows that it would not be good for us to answer a prayer affirmatively. Have you ever prayed something, then – because of new information or whatever – realized that what you asked for is not what you need or want? This has certainly happened to me, and as a result I try to remember that asking “Your will be done” is ultimately in our best interests!
But sometimes the problem is not with unrighteousness, or selfish motivation, or asking contrary to God’s will. There is also another situation which I believe may apply to Christians just as often as any of these last three reasons for unanswered prayer. Although it is not one for which we can cite a chapter and verse, the principle is nevertheless to be found in the Bible. But let’s illustrate it with a real-life example. Those of us who are parents know that when children have problems or needs they will often unabashedly ask for help as they think it is needed. When one of our sons was in grade school he came home complaining of being bullied by a bigger kid at his bus stop. He had every confidence that his parent would fix the situation, but thought the answer would be for dad to punish the bully and thus solve the problem. Needless to say, dad explained that that would not be the right way to fix this particular problem and simply talked to the offending child the next day. A simple request to stop the bullying was all that was needed.
Like sincere children, sometimes we just don’t understand what to ask for and may well be asking for something that is not going to be given in the way we ask. God knows our need before we ask it (Matthew 6:8); and Paul says “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit itself intercedes for us…” (Romans 8:26). But that doesn’t mean God will answer exactly according to our request if we are asking for the wrong solution to the problem. Even as adults, we can be a lot like the child who asks for his or her solution to a problem and, as a result, we may not realize it when God works out the situation in a different manner from what we ask. No matter how sincere we may be, if we try to tell God how to do His job, we may find that’s the one way it won’t happen!
This is also true in the matter of timing. When we pray urgently for help that doesn’t arrive just when we think we need it, it’s easy enough to feel that the prayer was unanswered, but that’s not necessarily the case at all. We have to remind ourselves that we pray on our schedules and God answers on His. He doubtless knows when it will be best to answer our requests, but that doesn’t mean our prayers will never be answered.
You may not have noticed it, but there is a great biblical example of asking in a way that doesn’t stipulate what or when we think help needs to be given. In 2 Chronicles 20: 1-12 Jehoshaphat, one of ancient Israel’s few good kings, was told that a vast enemy army was heading toward Jerusalem. “Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah … Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD and said: ‘Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations … here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir … coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.’”
Notice that Jehoshaphat doesn’t ask for angelic armies to come to Israel’s aid; he doesn’t ask for plagues or whirlwinds to strike the enemy or any of the many ways we might imagine God could take care of the situation; and he doesn’t even ask for help now! His prayer ended with a simple “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” What kind of a prayer is that? you might ask. Jehoshaphat just mentions the situation and doesn’t even seem to ask for any specific help. Indeed, he does not. Nevertheless, Jehoshaphat ‘s prayer was answered. We are told that “The Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated” (2 Chron. 20:22).
Think about this. If Jehoshaphat had earnestly asked God for firestorms or floods or whatever to be unleashed upon his enemy, he might well have thought his prayer was unanswered. In this case his prayer obviously was answered, and quickly, but the point is that Jehoshaphat simply showed his faith and asked God’s help, leaving the details up to God.
Perhaps there is a lesson in this for us all. If we are living as we know we should, being right in the motivation for our requests, and letting God choose the best way to answer our needs, we can be sure that our prayers will be answered according to God’s will. We still have to accept God’s will in the matter, but we can pray “Your will be done” with confidence when we understand that God does have our ultimate happiness foremost in mind. When we remember that, and that God will answer as He knows best, we will also realize that we may actually have fewer unanswered prayers than we often think.
The English word “context” is derived from two Latin words meaning “to weave threads” (contextus, from con- ‘together’ + texere ‘to weave’) and so our word signifies that which is connected or woven together.
The expression “context is everything” applies in many areas of life, and it certainly applies in the study of God’s Word. Every beginning student of the Bible soon finds that many statements cannot be taken from their biblical setting and understood or used in isolation. On the other hand, even experienced Bible students sometimes forget the need to seek context in everything that is studied and especially in looking at difficult or puzzling verses. Context can be more than just reading the chapter in which a verse appears and there are, in fact, a number of different aspects or dimensions of context that all play a part in the successful understanding of scripture. As Miles Coverdale, sixteenth century translator of the English Bible, wrote:
“… it shall greatly help thee to understand scripture, if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom, and unto whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what goeth before, and what followeth after.” — Miles Coverdale, Preface to the Bible, 1535.
This article looks at four of the most important aspects of biblical context with examples and suggested study helps.
Overall Context
The first and perhaps most important aspect of maintaining context is that of seeing and interpreting every part of the Bible in the light of the whole. Some verses, such as John 3:16, may be clear in isolation, but even then taking in the other verses relevant to this very clear statement expands our understanding and appreciation for its meaning. In many other cases overall context clearly is needed for proper understanding.
In 2 Kings 2:1 the Bible tells us that Elijah was taken up by a whirlwind “into heaven”. It is easy to misunderstand this statement without overall biblical context. But when we put other relevant scriptures together we see that from the biblical perspective, there are three heavens (2 Corinthians 12:2). Over nine hundred years after the time of Elijah, Jesus Himself said “no man has ascended up to heaven” (John 3:13), meaning the heaven of God. So 2 Kings is evidently talking about the “heaven” that we would call the sky or the atmosphere – just as the Bible speaks of the “dew of heaven” (Genesis 27:28, 39, Deuteronomy 33:28).
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul frequently stresses that salvation comes by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8,9: etc.), yet comparing this understanding with the writing of the apostle James who states that faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26), we get the whole picture. In fact, if we look further into the writings of Paul himself, we find statements which back this up. Take for example: “It is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous” (Romans 2:13). So overall context shows that we are saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone – living faith leads us to right behavior and good works.
Study Helps: For beginning students, putting everything together that the Bible says on a given subject can seem like a daunting task, but there are many study helps such as concordances and topical Bibles that make this task much simpler. Even the marginal references found in many bibles can be helpful in pulling important scriptures together for overall context.
Literary Context
It’s easy to think of the books of the Bible as being all essentially the same when it comes to studying its message. But the Bible contains many kinds of formats that we must keep in mind if we are to successfully understand what it is saying. Think of the phone book – it’s not all the same format: white pages, yellow pages, blue pages, all with their own format and different kinds of information. The books of the Bible not only have different types of literature – prose, poetry, messages, lists, etc. – within the overall book, but even within individual books. Take, for example, some of the things said in the Book of Psalms where David exclaims “Break the teeth in their mouths, O God” (Psalm 58:6). Such an example may be easy to see as poetic language which obviously is not meant to be understood literally, but when we remember that about 30% of the Hebrew Bible is written in poetic form it can help us better understand sections of the prophetic books, for example, where sections of narrative text are mixed with sections of poetic text. Older translations, such as the King James version, tend to obscure this fact by printing everything in the same format. More recent translations, such as the English Standard Version and New International Version, make a big difference by printing different literary formats in different fonts and layouts.
But it’s not just the Old Testament where this principle applies. Take for example, 1 John 1:2: “The Elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.” These verses are often taken out of context as though they indicate that prosperity and physical health are things to be highly sought in the Christian life and are of great importance. In reality this is just a common letter opening expression of that day and age, just as we might write something like “I hope this finds all well with you” at the start of a letter to a friend today.
Study helps: Different translations often help to clarify changes in format in the original texts, but not always. If wording is still unclear, try checking different commentaries on the book in question, though remember that commentaries, by their very nature, may give the personal views of their authors – so you may wish to compare several.
Immediate Context
Ecclesiates 7:28, out of context, makes a seemingly startling statement: “While I was still searching but not finding – I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.” At first sight this sounds like a very sad situation, but if we look carefully at the immediate context, we see that the section beginning in vs. 26 is talking about prostitutes who snare unsuspecting men. All Solomon is saying here is that although there may be “one in a thousand” men who resist such a woman (clearly using an idiomatic expression for a round number), he found not a single upright woman in this group. Other verses in this book – Proverbs 12:4, 31:10, etc. – show this is certainly not a condemnation of all women; and the Bible talks of many upright women, of course.
In the New Testament, a scripture with which most Bible readers are familiar is found in the Book of Matthew: “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matt. 18:20). While this verse is frequently taken to mean gathering in church fellowship, the actual immediate context is about correcting someone for a problem (vs. 15-18), and asking God’s help in the process (vs. 19). The teaching here is quite different from how it is often understood out of context.
Study Helps: This kind of contextual setting doesn’t usually need tools, though good commentaries can sometimes help if the verse just isn’t making sense. Also remember your Bible’s marginal references – sometimes they will point to a similar section of scripture where the same point is explained more clearly.
Cultural Context
Sometimes only knowledge of the cultures in which biblical stories are set can help us to understand exactly what a biblical narrative means. In Genesis 15: 9-21, for example, in the story of God sealing his covenant with Abram, God instructed Abram to take various animals and sacrifice them, dividing them into halves in such a way that someone could walk between the halves of the carcasses. Genesis then states: “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram …” (Genesis. 15: 17-18a). This strange event is understandable when we realize that in many ancient Near Eastern cultures, land ownership “contracts” were sealed by the participants dividing sacrificed animals or walking between the parts of the animals. Without this cultural context the details of the story would be difficult to understand, but knowing the background helps us to see that God was simply utilizing the legal practices of the time in order to confirm his promises to Abram/Abraham.
In the New Testament, the story of the women who anointed Jesus’ feet and head (Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, Luke 7:36-50, John 12:1-8) can be much better understood in cultural context. When we understand that a “denarius” was the average wage earned by a laborer for a full long day of work, and that the perfume used by the women would have cost upwards of 300 denarii – almost a year’s wages (Mark 14:5), we begin to realize the sacrifice these women, who were not rich, were making in their gifts.
Usually cultural context does not affect our understanding of doctrine or principles of living, but it can frequently illuminate the biblical stories and make them more understandable and real to us.
Study Helps: Carefully selected background books can help with understanding cultural context, but many are very detailed and it can be difficult to find the information needed. This is an area in which the internet shines. Doing a search for “dividing animals in sacrifices,” “biblical sacrifices + ancient Near East” or just “Genesis 15: 17-18” may find information on the background for the example used here. It is often worth doing a quick online search for background information (being careful to evaluate the quality of the site, of course) when cultural context is not clear.
Keeping these four types of context in mind can answer a good many questions about the scriptures and make them seem less puzzling. They can also deepen our understanding of the scriptures and make them more meaningful to us.
“We must hang together, or we’ll hang separately.”
“. . . ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
These statements identify (and in some cases, define) those who spoke them. But no one has ever uttered more impacting words than Jesus Christ, and no statement of Jesus’ more defines His life and what it means to be His disciple than the Sermon on the Mount. It may be the most familiar of Jesus’ teachings, though arguably the least understood and obeyed.
The sermon has been called Christ’s Manifesto – His platform speech outlining the character of those under His kingdom rule. The events that led up to it — His rabbinic training, baptism, wrestling match with Satan, and selection of a cabinet (twelve disciples) — give it the feel of an inaugural address. We speak of a person’s seat in Congress and of a professor’s chair at college, so Matthew’s note that Jesus “sat down” for this sermon is quite significant. This is no small talk. Here Jesus reinterprets the law, redefines spirituality, and calls His followers to a radically different lifestyle in which we love our enemies, turn the other cheek, and offer our coat to the one who steals our cloak.
Before we get too far into the body of the sermon, let’s linger at the introduction: the Beatitudes. There are eight of them, each beginning with the word blessed, commonly rendered “happy.” Yes, these two words are related, but Jesus has more in mind than merely feeling good. The Beatitudes were crafted for their shock effect. The kingdom belongs to the poor; the truly joyous are those who mourn; the meek, not the rich and affluent, are the true owners of the earth’s real estate.
This isn’t a treatise on social ethics, nor the random sayings of a preacher who’s run out of steam. The Beatitudes are the description of a true disciple. If you’d heard of Christian disciples but never met one, here’s the profile. These qualities aren’t optional; every believer will possess each of them in some measure.
The Beatitudes’ sequence is important; each one lays the foundation for the next. Like climbing a mountain with God at the top, our journey toward Him begins with poverty of spirit, declaring spiritual bankruptcy – recognizing that we bring nothing to the table except our sin. Humbled, we weep tears of repentance (mourning). Then we quit calling the shots in our own lives and for others (meekness). Contrary to popular opinion, meekness isn’t weakness but a total surrender to God, illustrated by the two people Scripture calls meek: Moses and Jesus. Humbled, repentant, and surrendered, we hunger and thirst for God Himself and His righteousness.
We’re now at the mountain peak where disciples like to camp, but we can’t stay here. We must go back to the valley where life is lived and our discipleship is tested. So the first four beatitudes move us toward God; the last four point us to others. The descent begins with mercy and compassion for those in need. Purity of motive, protecting and preserving our relationships (peacemaking), and rejoicing when persecuted: These are where the rubber meets the road.
Matthew (7:28, 29) notes that those who first heard the sermon were amazed. May those who hear it now be radically transformed, becoming a nearer copy of the One whose disciples we are.
*Used with permission from the Bible Advocate, Jan-Feb 2010
We are amazingly reluctant to realize that our heroes have faults. When it becomes glaringly obvious, we toss them aside, capes torn, shields tarnished, heroes no longer.
This must be why we find it so hard to realize that good people in the Bible do inexplicably bad things. The really tough ones are the ones we never see say I’m sorry. I wrote about Lot recently (Jerk or Just) and the story has remained close to my heart since. We never see him building an altar, weeping over wrongs done, or even read any justification except what I call God’s “gobstopping” grace. God called him righteous.
I just reread the story of Samson. He’s another hero with a severely torn cape. Read Judges 13-16. On the surface, Samson was an arrogant womanizer with major co-dependency problems. You know the good-looking jock in the movies who is led around by a gorgeous, manipulative harpy? That’s him.
The story starts beautifully with an appearance by God to Samson’s parents with a promise of his birth and instructions as to his rearing. (Kind of nice to have God Himself show up to deliver your What to Expect book!) The last two verses in chapter 13 say, “So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshatol.” That is a pretty auspicious beginning.
Then the first thing we see Samson do as an adult is to let his parents know that there’s a hot Philistine chick that he wants them to get for his bride. “Sammy, isn’t there a nice Jewish girl you’d rather bring home?” They weren’t being prejudiced. The Philistines were in power over Israel at the time and they were ungodly idol-worshipping oppressors out for pure destruction.
“…But his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord – that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.” (Judges 14:4)
Here’s where I think some of the denial comes in. To me, it is rather clear that Samson’s parents were doing their job as godly people, trying to steer their son in the right direction. They were simply unaware that God, in His sovereign plan, was going to work Samson’s willfulness into the greater good.
As I read commentaries, people seem to struggle with this, certain that, since God’s spirit often moved mightily on Samson, he prophetically wanted the Philistine woman for his wife so that God could move against Israel’s enemies.
I think Samson just wanted the girl. We can’t be afraid to see good guys without a cape. Our God of grace is often beyond our understanding. He uses flawed people who do stupid things. There are some unbelievable doozies of Samson stories I’d love to share but even a brief synopsis gets a bit lengthy.
Read through Judges 14-16. You will notice that Samson’s deeds are not always accompanied by “the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” Sometimes, as when he ate honey from the lion carcass, he was completely breaking Jewish law (Leviticus 11:27). His marriage was clearly an ungodly one with horrible results for his wife. (The foxes didn’t fare so well either.) Some of his actions appear to be purely out of anger or revenge.
Still, God had a plan to move against the Philistines and, more than once, He used a strong man with weak principles to do so. The Spirit of the Lord did fall upon Samson in chapter 15 and he killed 1,000 men with a donkey’s jawbone. Gruesome? Yes. But these were enemies of God. There is no way one person could kill 1,000 people in a day with anything but an explosive. Or the Spirit of God and a jawbone. He followed that God-filled victory with a visit to a prostitute, then pulled up the city gate by the gateposts and carried it up the hill. Flawed hero. Torn cape.
All of this leads up to the story of Samson and Delilah, one of the most infamous relationships in the Bible. I won’t lend much space to that here. You know the story. This seductive worshiper of Ashtoreth, Dagon and Baal-Zebub manipulated him into telling her, not the Source of his strength, but how he could be robbed of it. He paid a dear price for that dalliance. Blindness, bondage, humiliation and shame.
He eventually was able to push down the main pillars of the temple of Dagon, killing more enemies of the Lord in his death than he ever did in his life. God gave him an amazing victory. And here’s the lesson:
While there are incredible stories in the Bible about Samson, he judged Israel for 20 years. Several times we see him destroying the enemy through the Spirit of God. Several others, we see him acting badly or questionably.
But we don’t know anything else that happened during those 20 years. We don’t know how many ways God used him. For some reason, God chooses to show us Samson’s frailties. We see him succumb to seduction and give in to desires.
But God placed him in Hebrews 11:32 in the same verse as David, Samuel and Gideon.
Whaaat??? And what about me? Yep, you darlin’. All those failures. All that shame. Past is past. He can use you too. God exposes all that weakness, all that rawness, to teach us something. Good people really mess up. God uses really messy people.
Stay in the middle of your mess and the temple you are dallying in will come down on your head. But He is willing to pull you out and He can still use you.
There are no chains so strong that the power of God cannot break them.
There is no blindness so dark that the light of God cannot pierce through.
There are no idols in your life on a pedestal so high that you cannot cast them at the feet of Jesus.
Samson went into the arms of the wrong person, but God gave him a glorious victory at the end of his life. And God gave him, in all of his messiness, gobstopping grace.
*This article is an adaptation of Angela Martin’s website post with the same title – you can see the original post here. Reproduced with the author’s permission.
An Alpine Symphony, by Richard Strauss, depicts a dawn to dusk climb up a mountain.
Why do we climb mountains? You can get almost as many answers to that question as you can find climbers to ask. Some will say because the mountains are there, others because of the challenge, and others just because. But deeper down I think there really is something about climbing that mirrors a profound human urge to overcome and surmount obstacles.
I think that desire is something we tap into with things that are important to us, as in the Christian goals of growing and overcoming. And I don’t think I’m the only one who sees the parallels between climbing and some of our higher goals. As Edmund Hillary, celebrated “conqueror” of Everest, wrote, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
We call it “the Christian walk”, but I often think it’s more like a climb than a walk – both in terms of when it gets tough, and the rewards of accomplishment. I used to enjoy rock climbing, and although I don’t do it anymore, I can’t really think about climbing without thinking of some of the analogies between it and the Christian life. The parallels may be basic, but I know many of climbing’s strategic and tactical lessons have helped me, so I discuss some of them here.
• Plan the ascent. Climbers know that many mountains may be safely scaled only by one route which is not necessarily the easy path. We can’t succeed without a path to follow, and it’s not just a matter of memorizing a set route. Sometimes we need course corrections, and we have to continue to plan as we move upward throughout the climb or the Christian life. Proverbs 22:3 says: “The prudent person sees trouble ahead and hides, but the naive continue on and suffer the consequences.” Do we plan ahead to circumvent problematic situations, to avoid slippery paths and treacherous spiritual terrain? We must live one day at a time, but planning our daily walk is a big part of getting where we want to go. How much time do we actually spend in doing this? Darkness falls fast in the mountains, you have to plan your activities to be ready. Do we plan where to best fit in our spiritual activities, or do they get relegated to whatever time, if any, is left at the end of the day?
• It’s a group activity. Mountains can be wonderful places to be alone, to hike, enjoy the serenity and meditate. The Gospels show that on many occasions Jesus went up on a mountainside by himself to pray (e.g., Matthew 14:23). But ascending the highest peaks profits from teamwork. Although even great mountains have been scaled by individuals climbing alone, the lone climber has no one to help him or her and helps no one else – so everyone loses something. The same principle applies in obvious ways in our Christian lives. In spiritual climbing, you need a climbing buddy, or several. It’s a group activity.
• Safety in humility. Experiencing the majesty, vastness and age of mountains can be humbling, as many climbers and others have written. From Jane Austen’s “What are men to rocks and mountains?” to veteran climber Robert Macfarlane’s “Mountains refute our excessive trust in the man-made,” humans have frequently extolled these awesome pinnacles of creation. But every climber knows that staying humbly aware of one’s own vulnerability is a necessary part of climbing safety. So too, basic humility can be a big part of realizing our spiritual vulnerability to potentially deadly mistakes. “Let he who thinks he stands beware, lest he fall” (I Corinthians 10:12).
• Use the right equipment. Some of the most basic climbing equipment is similar to the gear mentioned by the apostle Paul in the military equipment analogy he makes in Ephesians 6:10-18. Take, for example, the helmet of faith. In climbing a helmet is not so much for if you fall, but if things fall on you such as falling rock and ice chunks. Faith is a good helmet too, against unexpected onslaughts of life that seem to hit out of nowhere. Much of the equipment the climber uses is different, of course, but it carries its own reminders – for example, ropes. There is nothing like dangling from a rope with hundreds of feet of empty space below to help you appreciate the value of a lifeline. I think of prayer as a lifeline I don’t want to be without. If I let it slip, I usually find myself dealing with a hard fall.
• Don’t look back/down. More accurately, don’t focus on the down. Fear and vertigo can sometimes happen to even experienced climbers. There is also a spiritual vertigo. We can erode our ability to keep climbing by focusing on the past and the abyss of past sins. You have to believe in the rock to which you are anchored – what climbers refer to as a “bomber” or “bomb-proof anchor”. Psalm 121:1 (a song of ascents) talks about one: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord…” As Christians we know what that bomb-proof anchor is in our lives. “Though the mountains are shaken and the hills are removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord …” (Isaiah 54:10).
• Focus on the goal – and on the around. There is a weird thing about climbing. Looking up the climb ahead you get what is termed “perspective foreshortening” – the mountaintop may seem close at first, but it can seem to get further away as you climb. Life can feel that way, too, sometimes. You just have to be committed to keep climbing no matter how far the goal may still appear to be. On the other hand, while climbers have to focus on the goal in climbing, they try not to miss the pleasures of the spectacular views as they climb. Life should be enjoyed, too. Focus on the top, but don’t miss the scenery on the way up!
I knew a Christian climber who used to say he thought that God loves the mountains and climbed them, too. He quoted Amos 4:13 as indication of this: “He who forms the mountains … and treads on the heights of the earth…” I’m not so sure this verse actually means climbing the heights of the earth, but I do know that climbing mountains – or just reading about climbing them– can remind us of principles we need to keep in mind for the more important climb to which God calls us.
Recent Comments