ALTITUDE……How high do we wish to go?  Yes, that’s a fair question to consider on this day.

Do we wish to go as HIGH as we can see?

Do we wish to go as HIGH as our friends envision?

Do we wish to go as HIGH as our mama or our daddy inspires us to go?

Do we wish to go as HIGH as our spouse encourages?

Do we wish to go as HIGH as our kids, yes, our precious daughters (and sons) think we surely can go?

Do we wish to go as HIGH as WE INTERNALLY “THINK” WE’D LIKE TO GO?

How high?

How high do we wish to go in our praise, exaltation, belief, obedience, and faith?

On this day, I find myself awake while the world remains covered in darkness.  I suppose my body knows today’s plan will take extra effort from me, so I am afforded more time to prepare (and that’s why I awake and arise from my bed of rest while the world remains trapped inside a blanket of darkness).

We drove south yesterday (or Sydney drove, and we rode), the four of us.  Seven hours later, we enter the beautiful Alps poking their peaks into the clouds.  That’s where we will remain for the next few days.

As we entered and drove along the mountain range in Austria, I recalled the way the Rockies looked back in 2020 when we entered that mountain range, and I wondered, “Am I closer to God today than I was in 2020?

How are we doing in our walk with God?  How are we doing in believing EVERYTHING that God creates and brings to our lives?  Are we praising our Father for our EVERYTHING that He brings?  Are we saying, “Thank You, God, for it is truly ONLY for YOU that we exist.”

Are we glorifying God even inside our moments of pain?

Are we glorifying God even inside our hours of struggle?

Are we glorifying God even inside our weeks of disease and heartache?

Are we glorifying God even inside our months of trials, when we are tempted to throw up our hands in defeat?

Are we glorifying God?

Are we glorifying Him, Yes, Him our Abba, our heavenly Father, when we endure years and years and years and years…….when we just don’t understand WHY?

Are we glorifying God?

ALTITUDE……How high do we wish to go?

Do we wish to go as HIGH as we can see?  As our friends envision?  As our parents inspire us to go?  As our spouse encourages?   As our precious children think we surely can go?

Do we wish to go as HIGH as WE INTERNALLY “THINK” WE’D LIKE TO GO?

OR

Do we wish to go as HIGH, to rise into God’s Altitude, to breathe in His clean, clear, crystal air, & to know that we are RIGHT WHERE GOD WOULD HAVE US GO,   &   BE,  &   REMAIN?

How high?

How high is our praise, and our exaltation, and our belief, and our obedience, and our faith?

This mountain range I face today in Austria (the one we hope to hike) causes me to pause, to wonder, “Is my belief today higher than it was in 2020? As I write, a beautiful melody, “Scars in Heaven” by Casting Crowns fills my ears. Thank You, Jesus, for taking the scar prints into Your hands so I could come to know You as my Savior.

My beautiful best friend reminded me this morning of a passage inside God’s Word, one that speaks of a father’s unbelief, of the way Jesus led him to belief and how this father’s belief led to the healing of his son.

“And He asked his father [Jesus asked the boy’s father], “How long has this been happening to him?”

And he said [the father of the boy said], “From childhood.

It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.  But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”

And Jesus said to him, “If You can? All things are possible to him who believes.”

Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”

(Mark 9: 21-24)

Thank You, Jesus for moving us from our unbelief into belief.

Thank You, Jesus for taking us by the hand and leading us to see You, to believe in You, to accept Your amazing grace and Your salvation for our soul.

THANK YOU, JESUS!

The sun is rising, and I can see the peak of the mountain that awaits me today.  The clouds stir up near their peak, and I anticipate the exhilaration God will give to me as I hike to a place, to a height, one I have never hiked before.

Thank You, Jesus, for helping me arise this morning, for giving me a peace deep inside my soul, and for giving me time to talk with my best friend and for giving me time to arise with YOU.

When texting within our conversation, Julie shared, “We don’t have to muster up our own ‘belief.’  We just have to believe enough to ask Him to help us move past our unbelief.”

God has a good purpose for the trials He allows in our life.  Within our trials, our faith is tested, and that testing produces endurance.  We find perseverance, and we find the perfect and complete will of our LORD (James 1: 2-4).

ALTITUDE……How high do we wish to go?  Yes, a fair question to consider on this day, the day we will hike into the beautiful Alps, the mountain range only our heavenly Father can create.

CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE, GOD, AS YOU ALSO CHANGE OUR ALTITUDE.

TAKE US TODAY EVER HIGHER, FATHER, AS HIGH INTO YOUR ALTITUDE, AS HIGH INTO A DEEPER FAITH THAT YOU WOULD HAVE US GO.

We ask this request, today, in this earliness of this beautiful morning.  Amen.