“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”—Hebrews 12:1-2.
The message of the gospel is to lift and to
inspire people. The gospel announces
freedom and forgiveness instead of condemnation. The good news helps people discover the plan
that God has for them His plans for good and not for evil and to bring them to
an expected end, “For I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to
give you an expected end” (Jeremiah
29:11). Jesus summed up
what His Father’s will for you when He said, “I have come that you might have life…and abundance of it” (John
10:10).
I want
to encourage you today to reject the voices that pull you back into accepting mediocrity,
lack and fear. Press forward in your faith for higher ground “the Father
will not hold any good thing from those who walk uprightly’ (Psalm 84:11). “Delight yourself in Him and He shall give
you the desires of your heart” (Psalms 37:4).
“God has now begun a good work in you; he will complete it” (Philippians
1:6).
Henry Ward Beecher wrote that, “There is not a heart but has it moments of
longing, yearning for something better, nobler, holier than it knows now.” What is your heart yearning for? What ever it is Jesus said, “All things whatever you desire, you can
have them” (Mark 11:24). He said, “With God, all things are possible” (Mark
10:27).
Jesus lifted people and helped them become more than they could by
themselves.
Jesus found a fisherman and lifted him up and made him
a leader.
He transformed a demon-possessed abused woman into
a lady and one of His most productive followers.
He lifted a naked maniac from living in torment and
shame into an effective representative for Him.
He changed a cheating taxpayer into a gentleman
with respect.
Ordinary people became extraordinary when they
discovered who Jesus was.
Today allow Him to lift you higher. See things from His
perspective, “But God, who is rich in
mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead
in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been
saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6).
Paul did not boast in the thing he had accomplished, so as not to be content with past trials or present measures of grace. He pressed forth toward the prize. “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” (Philippians 3:13).
Dr. T. L. Osborn says that when we keep our focus on the
Father, then we are “Reassuring Him that we believe in Him, that
we trust His word, that we will never bow to any other influence than His, that
we commit our lives to the integrity of His word above everything else in the
world.” The Apostle Paul says it
this way, “And set your minds and keep them set on what is above
(the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth” (Colossians 3:2).
Let the following hymn be our prayer
today as we press forward to higher
ground:
Higher
Ground
My
heart has no desire to stay where doubts arise and fear dismay;
Tho’
some may dwell where these abound, My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.
For
faith has caught the joyful sound, the song of saints on higher ground.
I
want to scale the utmost height, and catch a gleam of glory bright;
But
still I’ll pray till heaven I’ve found, “Lord lead on to higher ground.”
Chorus:
Lord,
lift me up and let me stand, by faith on heaven’s table land,
A
higher plane than I have found; Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
