The View Just Past the Summit: Holding Fast Through Trials for the Joy Ahead
2 Samuel 16:1a And when David was a little past the top of the hill…
Wow! Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Just imagine what’s around the bend, child of God! What you’re going through today will be worth it all, just a little past the top of the hill! Your struggles, your pain, your suffering, your loneliness, your tears, your losses, your fears, your trials, they’ll all pay off soon enough! I couldn’t help but go to Luke 9:51, where it is said of our Lord, “And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Again, in Isaiah 50:7, it says, “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” Then again in Heb. 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Notice this part in particular, “…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame…” Jesus knew then what He reveals to us today through our text, that joy was awaiting just a little past the top of the hill!
This is why we can endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, because even our blessed Lord Jesus did the same! Dear reader, if our Lord had to bear His cross in order that He might obtain the prize, do you think that we His servants can easily escape our cross and glide with ease to the top of our mount? No, but to the contrary, He teaches us in Matthew 16:24b, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” We each have our own cross to bear. Do not let this disturb you, for it is through the death of the cross that we are resurrected in newness of life! Paul said in Gal. 2:20a, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” Rest assured that one day our cross will be traded for a crown, and one glorious day break we shall trade our mourning for gladness, and we shall forever put on the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness! We shall overcome, child of God, we shall overcome! Do not allow your present sufferings to even be compared with that which shall come just a little past the top of the hill!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
Wow! Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Just imagine what’s around the bend, child of God! What you’re going through today will be worth it all, just a little past the top of the hill! Your struggles, your pain, your suffering, your loneliness, your tears, your losses, your fears, your trials, they’ll all pay off soon enough! I couldn’t help but go to Luke 9:51, where it is said of our Lord, “And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Again, in Isaiah 50:7, it says, “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” Then again in Heb. 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Notice this part in particular, “…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame…” Jesus knew then what He reveals to us today through our text, that joy was awaiting just a little past the top of the hill!
This is why we can endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, because even our blessed Lord Jesus did the same! Dear reader, if our Lord had to bear His cross in order that He might obtain the prize, do you think that we His servants can easily escape our cross and glide with ease to the top of our mount? No, but to the contrary, He teaches us in Matthew 16:24b, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” We each have our own cross to bear. Do not let this disturb you, for it is through the death of the cross that we are resurrected in newness of life! Paul said in Gal. 2:20a, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” Rest assured that one day our cross will be traded for a crown, and one glorious day break we shall trade our mourning for gladness, and we shall forever put on the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness! We shall overcome, child of God, we shall overcome! Do not allow your present sufferings to even be compared with that which shall come just a little past the top of the hill!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill