Devotion - Wednesday - September 30

Higher Ground
Last year I was driving down the freeway on my way to a retreat when I noticed my car’s temperature gauge swinging between hot and cold. Shortly after this the car began to lose power and I had to drift off the road onto the hard shoulder. Did I mention that this happened during rush hour?!

A short while later the police arrived. They had noticed my plight and persuaded me to get out of my car and move to higher ground. I thought I was perfectly safe in my car, but from my new vantage point I could see how fast the traffic was moving and how dangerous it would have been to remain in the car.

Later that evening, at the retreat, God spoke to me. He said that, just like my car’s temperature gauge, my spirituality had been going from hot to cold. I learnt a few thing that night! I wasn’t expressing God’s love as I could, because I was more concerned about what others thought of me. I was also restricting myself by trying to do things in my own strength, instead of depending on the Holy Spirit. The truth was, areas of my spiritual life that I thought were quite safe were, in fact, in peril. I needed to move up to higher ground.
It was time to see what the Word of God had to say. Paul wrote to Timothy,

“I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:6-7)

When we allow the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of the Lord to flow through us, it enables us to be the people God intends us to be. The enemy would like nothing more than for us to live in fear and timidity; hiding in shame, quaking in inadequacy, overwhelmed by oppression. But this is not what Christ died for.
Being confident in the living Word of God will enable us to be confident and victorious in all spheres of life. Let’s not keep plowing ahead in a vehicle that is just about to break down! Let’s go up to the higher ground as we draw near to Jesus.
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From Victory in the Wilderness by Helen Roberts on Youversion