Mountains

Last week's blog is turning into a series; this week is instalment 2!

Last week was about giants; having faith to battle our giants, even if we feel our arsenal only has small pebbles. 

And one of the verses was;

If you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains. 

📖 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20

So this week is about the mountains.

📖 For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. Psalm 95:3-4

I found 304 references to "mountain" in my search of the NIV translation on biblegateway.com.

⛰ Sometimes it is mentioned as a geographical location or a destination.

📖 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat Genesis 7:4

📖 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.  1 Kings 19:8

⛰ As imagery

📖  I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

 where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,
 the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2

📖 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. Psalm 36:6

⛰ A place of worship

📖 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Exodus 3:12

📖 Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise,
in the city of our God, his holy mountain. Psalm 48:1

⛰ A place of prayer

📖 these I will bring to my holy mountain
    and give them joy in my house of prayer. Isaiah 56:7

📖 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. Luke 9:28

⛰ God's dwelling place

📖 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Exodus 3:1

📖 I call out to the Lord,   and he answers me from his holy mountain. Psalm 3:4

⛰ Where God shows His might, majesty, reveals Himself 

📖 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. Exodus 19:18

📖 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance Exodus 20:18

⛰A place of shelter

📖 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds Judges 6:2

⛰ God meets Moses there

📖 Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.” When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.  Exodus 24:13-17

⛰ Mountains crumble 

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 1 Kings 19:11

📖 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, Psalm 46:2

⛰ Faith can move them

📖 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. Matthew 21:21

We all have our giants to face, and we all have our mountains...and the verse says if we have even the smallest faith we can move mountains...but what if it doesn't move? 

Then we are meant to climb it! Because God is on that mountain. And with faith we can scale it's heights, and worship Him at the summit!.. actually we can worship Him the whole hike! 

In climbing the mountain there are lessons for us, many times very personal lessons. It may be a  time when we have to rely on God, and God alone, and once we have persevered the trials and reached the top, it will allow us a spectacular view of what we have overcome, and where we are to go next!  

📖 May he judge your people in righteousness,

your afflicted ones with justice.

May the mountains bring prosperity to the people,

the hills the fruit of righteousness.

Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel,

who alone does marvelous deeds.

Praise be to his glorious name forever;

may the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and Amen.              Psalm 72:2-3, 18-19

⛰👍Just a side note, this blog was already in the works, but I find it interesting that I post it this week!

As on Wednesday this past week, my husband, his sister and a long time friend of his finally accomplished one of their hiking goals!  They have now, literally, hiked 46 of the Adirondack High Peaks!  They are able to place their names with the other " ADK 46ers"!  Congratulations to them!

The mountains didn't move, but had to be scaled, hiked and overcome for the goal to be reached!👍⛰

Next week...instalment # 3....FIRE!