"..High on the mountain.. lifting my voice.."

"I've seen your grace from the mountain.

I've felt you there in the valley below.

I see your love and your mercy,....

I know You're in every season,

I feel your hand

 bringing peace and control...."

-Mountain by Bryan & Katie Torwalt

"Seasons change

Though the music changes

 And the songs we sing

We still lift our praises

To our loving God..."

(Seasons Change- United Pursuit)

‘Call to me and I will answer you

 and tell you great and unsearchable things 

you do not know.’ Jeremiah 33:3

"Consider this: God has given us access

 to the inaccessible.

 What an incomprehensible promise!

 It is out of the reach of our skills, 

character, or qualifications.

 We lack all that is necessary

 to be able to apprehend what exists in the realm called the goodness of God. 

But he gave us something that makes this impossibility possible.

 He gave us the key to the inaccessible.

 He himself is that key. 

Through His name we have access to that

 which is beyond our reach on our best day.

 The invitation came from His goodness.

 He invites us to call upon him, 

giving Him the open door 

to answer in a way that is above 

our expectations and imagination."

- Bill Johnson from God is Good,pg 91)

Photo by Alan McGaughran

"...the solitary place.."

"The wilderness and the solitary place 

shall be glad for them;

and the desert shall rejoice,

 and blossom as the rose."

Isaiah 35:1 (AKJV)

'"..even-if..not "what-if"..

"Even-if not "what-if"

Vaneetha Rendall Risner mentions in the book

"the Scars that have Shaped me"

"We all face a staggering array of what-if's... 

No one is free from tragedy or pain. There are no guarantees of an easy life.

 For any of us. Ever.

....I sensed God asking the same question I have wrestled with for decades.

 "Am I enough?"

...He reminded me that I have something far better than a reassurance that my dreaded "what if's" won't happen.

 I have assurance that even if they do happen, God will be there in the midst of them. He will carry me. He will comfort me. He will tenderly care for me.

 God doesn't promise me a trouble-free life. But he does promise that he will be there in the midst of my sorrows.

In the Bible, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego we're not guaranteed deliverance. Just before Nebuchadnezzar delivered them to the fire,

they offered some of the most courageous words ever spoken.

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it...

But even if he does not, we want you to know 

that we will not serve your gods"

Daniel 3:17-18(NIV)

Even if.

Those two simple words can take the fear out of life.

Replacing "what if" with "even if" in our mental vocabulary is one of the most liberating exchanges we could ever make.

We trade our irrational fears of an uncertain future for the loving assurance of an unchanging God."

“The Lord has helped us ·to this point [this far]"

“Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

1 Samuel 7:12 (NIV)