Matthew 14:23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
There were times that Yeshua (Jesus) separated himself from the multitudes -- and there are times when we need to separate ourselves from our lives and ministry, and spend some time with our Lord.
I love how Yeshua climbed a mountain. It made me think of an interesting analogy. Picture the shape of a mountain. It starts out wide at the bottom -- the higher we climb, the narrower it becomes -- and the more we must stay close to the center. As we go even higher yet, there's less room to move to the left or the right -- and there's less and less ground that can be compromised -- the more focused we need to be and the less we can afford to be distracted. The higher we go, the less room we have to fool around!
Whatever you may be dealing with, you may just need to separate yourself and climb up to spend time with the Lord -- get centered on Him and focused on what He's calling you to.
God wants us to learn to climb to the top and focus all of our lives on His will! Let's take out some time this weekend to try it!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]As we approach the end of the age we are overwhelmed with the amount of evidence of the reliability and accuracy of the Bible. In the last century, archaeological discoveries have significantly reinforced the Bible’s credibility. A pivotal moment was in 1947 with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, an event whose significance was underscored with the timing of the reestablishment of the nation of Israel.
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For over 25 years we’ve been covering Christian Persecution, and whenever I come across an amazing story of how a saint endured such hardships, it encourages me. I remember reading about Watchman Nee and his imprisonment. The Chinese government would change the guards at his cell daily for fear that Nee would lead them to the Lord. Their fears were justified — many of those guards did come to faith! Apparently Watchman Nee had learned a powerful lesson from the Apostle Paul.