Wednesday, January 3, 2024

The Immovable and the Undefeatable -- What a Team!


Picture what's generally considered an immovable object. ...Something we'd consider permanent in our lifetime. You might think of a mountain – a huge, solid mountain of rock. 

The picture above is one I took of Mount Hood in Oregon after I had hiked up to a high point near the mountain. Mount Hood was entirely hidden from my view until all of a sudden, as I stepped out from the forest in which I'd been hiking, it suddenly filled my gaze. I nearly gasped. That massive mountain truly seemed an immovable object.

Now imagine that huge, solid, immovable mountain of rock to be completely surrounded and protected by an undefeatable never-departing army. It's an army so massive and well-equipped that there's not even the slightest gap in its defenses, and it never departs from its place around that mountain. The army is as immovable as the mountain itself. 

An immovable mountain surrounded by undefeatable defenses. ...Sounds fairly secure, doesn't it?

Well, imagine that YOU are that mountain, and GOD is that army. Because that is the truth of our reality when we put our trust in the God of the Bible.

It says in the Bible, "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore" (Psalm 125:1-2).

As we begin 2024, I don't know what might be disrupting your sense of security. Are there circumstances that are causing you to feel uneasy or anxious? Whatever our situations may be, let's shift our gaze to the image above – because that mountain is us when the Lord is our God. 

The Lord God's divine Son Jesus said, "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20), and then he sent his Spirit to fill us so that "by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope" (Romans 15:13). I like to think of abounding in hope as being the same as being surrounded by the undefeatable God of Hope, because God surrounding his people should certainly fill us with hope. And the God who surrounds us offers us strength for every situation we face. That's the only reason we could ever be accurately likened to a mountain "which cannot be moved". We are an immovable mountain because we are surrounded and helped by a loving and powerful and undefeatable God.

Let's focus on that the next time troubles try to move us.

© 2024 Ken Peters