How many times have you been on top of the mountain, only to continue on and feel that you have fallen back down the mountain hitting every single large boulder on the way down?  Just when you think you have everything figured out, something happens that you have to step back and figure out what just happened.

Matthew 17:2-4 ² As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. ³ Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.⁴ Peter exclaimed, “Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

So many times we dwell in the moment.  We have great experiences, we want the experiences to last, we want to stay in the glory of that moment.  But you can only stay in that moment for so long, then life catches up with you.  You have to come back down the mountain at some point and keep living.  And it is when we get back into real life, facing the real world, and all the of issues that come at us, that our faith is tested.  It always seems that the closer we get to God, the stronger the attacks are against us.  As we are spending time on the mountain top, it always seems that the enemy is building up forces along the road down the mountain.

“If the Devil, can’t make you bad, He’ll make you busy.”

“If the Devil can’t break you, He’ll break something around you”

When I think about the above statements, I keep thinking about the movie “UP”.  In the opening scenes of the movie, you see Carl and Ellie, with a change jar that they keep trying to fill to make their way to Paradise Falls.  As they get a decent amount into jar, Carl breaks his leg, they have a tire blow out, and they have a tree fall on the house, and then they have to break the jar and use all the money they had saved.

It is these kind of setbacks that cause many to loose faith.  It is in these times that our faith gets tested, and that we have to remember to rejoice and thank God no matter what is going on.  As you come down the mountain, it feels that you are going into a valley, but you will always come up out of that valley.  If you look through the Bible, you can see many references to battles in valleys.  One of my favorite references is from 2 Chronicles 20.  King Jehoshaphat called for all of his subjects to pray and fast, then as they go into battle, he sends the singers first and as they start singing God shows that He is very much in control as the enemies all turned on each other.  But my favorite part of this story, is that it took 3 days to come out of the valley with all of the spoils of the battle.

No matter what happens in life, remember that it is only for a moment, even if that moment seems to go on for a really long time.  Just because things aren’t working out for you the way you want, keep in mind that God may have different plans that what we can see coming up.  We never know what is in the valley, or what lies ahead, but proceed with an open mind and open heart for what God has for us.  No matter how hard you get hit, no matter the struggles you are going through, keep relying on God, and things will eventually work out.