Mountain moves.

My sister has a thing for books, just like everyone else in my family. Naturally, then, we would have loads of random books all over the house, and we definitely do. Out of the many devo books we have lying around the house, I picked up one and opened up to no page in particular. It was about prayer, and how we tend to look at the size of the mountain, rather than the strength of the mountain mover. The author used the example of the 12 men that went to spy on Canaan--how 10 of them said they should go somewhere else, and 2 of them had faith that this was the land that God promised them, daunting as it may seem. 

Interestingly enough, this devo kind of tied in to something I've been thinking about this Thanksgiving holiday. The Sunday school speaker today, Kirk I don't remember his last name but he lives in Virginia, kept emphasizing that the friends one has has a huge impact on that person's life, whether we see it directly or not. He was pretty much reiterating what Mr. Filipiak talked about when SNAC was over at their house--about the whole "you have an influence on people, and your friends have an influence on you too" deal. Kirk (that's what I'll call him, since he said it was ok) asked us questions about our friends such as, "What direction do your friends lead you?" kind of like that. Anyway, I thought about it...and I was really thankful 'cause most of my REALLY close friends are all Christians and they all really strive to live for Jesus. (and for the most part, they're all pretty hardcore about being in-your-face confrontational)

But it wasn't always like that.

When I was in 7th, I used to really hate coming to church 'cause I felt really secluded, and I thought that all these "Christian-y" people didn't know what they were talking about... I was so focused on ME and seeing what I could get out of this church stuff. Then God totally changed my perspective on that, changed my perspective of God Himself. A lot of things happened in 7th grade, at home and at school, that really brought me to my knees. God finally took everything away to show me that I can't do it on my own. It didn't happen all at once...God revealed more and more of Himself to me as I changed the focus off of me and onto Him. Slowly but surely God has done a work in my life, and He has most definitely shown me the joys of knowing Him as well as being in a church body that loves Him...and because of that, God has blessed me and given me the people today that I call my friends. :D

So I finally got a glimpse of Who it was all about, and what happened? I didn't have the same gnawing feeling of lonliness, 'cause He showed me it was all about Him...and anything that was to be done could only be done through His strength.

I don't know...but it would be something great to have faith that moves mountains. Whatever those mountains may be. "Have you stood in the shadow for so long that you've grown accustomed to the darkness?