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WELCOME TO GOD FOCUS THIS MORNING

The title of today’s episode is: SWITCHBACK

A switchback is a road that is somewhat like a rollercoaster, with rises and falls, twists and turns. But when it comes to train tracks and trains the tracks are laid out with as little twists as possible. Switchback is a term used when a train climbs a mountain in a zigzag pattern. It will go forward up a hill. It passes a switch, which allows the train to switch directions. Then it will go in reverse, climbing the hill in elevation, even though it appears to be backing up. Once it gets past a certain point the switch can be thrown for it to climb forward again. This repeats until the train has climbed a steep mountain to the top. It would have been too hard for it to climb straight up the hill.

At times we want to go at things the fast way, the difficult way, just to get to the top. It is at these times that we do not realize we cannot climb to the top without the switchbacks of life. In our lives, there will be times when we feel like we will never see the top of the mountain. The process of climbing is taking forever.

Standing at the bottom of the mountain looking up the steep incline, we are not even sure there is a way to the top. It seems too monumental to try to climb to the top. Jesus is there with the answers, but he only gives us one step at a time, so we have to trust that he will get us to the top. Letting go of our ideas of how to get there and just allowing him to lead is the first step. We cannot possibly see the reversals ahead, but we have to trust that even in reversals, he is elevating us.

We go so far and then we have to make a switchback. At this time, it seems like we are losing ground by going in reverse. But all along we are climbing in wisdom and understanding. In the case of a switchback, reverse is not losing ground. Remember the train is still climbing, it just appears to be losing ground.

Life often throws us things that makes us feel like we are in reverse or losing ground. But when we look back a little later the switchback set us up to climb higher and reach our final destiny.

1 Peter 4:12-13 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Fiery trials are allowed to enter our lives for different reasons. Some are to grow us and make us stronger. Others are to burn out impurities and make us more like Jesus. While in the middle of the process, we may feel like we are backing up or losing ground. The fiery trials make us partakers of Christ’s suffering. But one day, we will look around and find the things that appeared to be failures and reversals were actually steps forward. Remember when the train is in reverse it is still climbing.

We cannot allow the things that happen to cause us to fall. Even when we seem to be going in reverse, pray and ask God to help you climb higher. He has the ability to turn reversals into triumphs. He turns pain into joy and fiery trials into glory.

If the trials of life will eventually bring us joy, then they also give us strength. Because the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Psalm 84:7 “They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.”

When faced with a mountain, many of us want to pray for God to remove it. We do not want to have the difficult process of climbing. Someone went to all the trouble to lay the track with switchbacks to help our journey. The same one will elevate us and give us what we need to keep climbing.

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

There is not a trial we face, not a mountain that needs climbing, not a river too deep to cross that He is not with us. We can be encouraged that even in the times when it looks like we are suffering a reversal, he is there to say no you are in the middle of an elevation.

This is why we walk by faith and not sight. Looking at the reversal could be discouraging. Because it appears to be going backwards. No one ever wants to lose ground, especially in a battle. Faith says we are not going down, not going under but we are rising above like an eagle.

Psalm 37:23-24 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.

As long as we allow God to order our steps, even if we fall he will lift us up. Upholdeth- is defined by dictionary.cambridge.org – to defend or keep a principle or law, or to say that a decision that has already been made, especially a legal one, is correct:

God holds us up with his hand, even when we fall. Get an image of a toddler walking beside of a parent and they fall, but because the parent has a hold on their hand, they lift them up before they are completely on the ground. Though we fall, God will keep us from completely falling flat.

We can be encouraged that we never walk alone, he is holding our hand. Even when things look like they are going the wrong way. God is raising us higher, just like the train on a switchback. 

Until next time,

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

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