And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. Then the Lord said to me, “You have been traveling around this mountain country long enough. Turn northward and command the people.”
Deuteronomy 2:1-4 KJV
My sister, Kathy, has been reading through the Bible using a journaling study. This is where you read scripture and pray about what God is saying to you. Then using a special Bible with wide margins, you draw a piece of artwork to represent the scripture. My sister is a very talented artist, amongst other things, and she has been posting on social media some of her beautifully inspired artwork. The other day, she posted the artwork associated with this verse and God used her artwork to catapult me out of a rut.
I’ve been circling a mountain for a long time. I’ve been wanting something for a long time and asking God for it and His answer has been, “Wait, my child, you’re not ready yet!” So, I’ve been circling the mountain and re-asking, re-hashing, beseeching…over and over and over again.
I think as widows we often get stuck circling mountains and sometimes we need help moving north, so to speak. We circle the mountains of anger, jealousy, hurt, longing and self-indulgence, to name just a few. We fill our back packs with: “This shouldn’t be happening to me.” “I don’t want this.” “I shouldn’t have to do this.” “I’m tired.” And of course, “Why?”
This week as I was scrolling through my social media account up popped my sister’s post and her beautiful artwork, which further and much more directly gave me the answer God has for me. It is His sweet answer to my prayer!
Stop circling this mountain and move north! God spoke to me and basically told me to pick myself up and move north – look to Him and move toward Him.
Do you sometimes find that when you want something and ask for it and don’t get it in your time, you float away from Christ in the process? You don’t mean to, but you do. It’s a gradual wearing down, a slow movement south.
I find it so interesting that God knows me, knows what I need, when I need it and sends the perfect message in the perfect person at the perfect time. His answer always feeds my soul and sustains me.
I’m finding that when I start circling a mountain, it is often a man-made mountain. And as I am wearing a trail around its base, I am adding to the height of the mountain I am circling. I get caught up in the circling and looking at the mountain and I forget to look north…true north.
So, this girl is going through her backpack and I am leaving some of my stuff on this mountain trail – the stuff I’ve added. I am lightening up my backpack and looking north…going north. I’m still hiking, but I’m looking to my beacon- my true North – Christ, my Savior.
Who’s with me? Let’s open our backpacks up and get rid of some of the stuff we’ve been carrying! Let’s leave this trail and go north. I’ll meet you on a new trail and we can encourage one another along the way.
Stop circling this mountain and move north! Thanks, Kathy, for sharing your God-given talent and allowing God to work through you to encourage others!
Dear Lord, Thank You for Your scripture which is new every day! Thank You for using people in my life to encourage me and to speak light and truth into my life! I am moving north and leaving this mountain trail for a new trail being paved by You. Amen
Archive: Originally posted on awidowsmight.org in May 2016