When we think of God doing impossible things, we often think of Him overcoming painful challenges. But there are other things that threaten us; other ways in which we need supernatural rescue.
Mountaintop experiences can be particularly challenging. It is on the mountaintops the illusions of self-dependence are most easily believed. It is easier to think we control circumstances and that circumstances can make us happy.
The superior way to perceive the mountaintops is to see them as opportunities to grow in faith. To see the mountain simply as an additional opportunity for stewardship. A greater responsibility to use our influence to advance God’s kingdom. Jesus told his disciples it was virtually impossible to live on the mountaintop of riches and serve God’s kingdom at the same time. When His disciples expressed dismay, Jesus answered that “With God, all things are possible.”
That is where we want to be when the seasons of life take us to the mountaintops. “With God.” When we lean on God even when circumstances scream that it is unnecessary, then everything becomes possible. The riches that could be a stumbling block now become a resource.
The danger of the mountaintops is when we try to go there without God. Or when God beckons us into the plains and the valleys for His purposes and we refuse to go. The true mountain is God’s presence, which travels with us through every terrain of life.
“’Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ And looking at them, Jesus said to them, ‘With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”
– Matthew 19:23-26