Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it.” Zech 4:7 (NKJV)
Part Two – Mountain Great
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At times, we can feel as though life is a bit like it was for Zachariah and the Israelites: in ruins, messy, so much to do. So much so, we get stuck on “where do we start? How are we ever going to get this finished.” You know those and dreams and plans and situations that look so big and insurmountable in the beginning; the relationship that needs healing and restoring, the debt that's crippling your family, the career that's going nowhere, the child that's not speaking to you, the parent that betrayed you, the brokenness and insecurities that grip the very core of your being…
I get tempted to force things and make things happen. And if I’m honest, I’ve said things in past like “if such and such doesn't happen, I'm going to make it happen myself…” or something to that effect. And while we do need to work hard, and in some seasons endure and push through, forcing things to happen or go your way rarely works out well. It smells of domination, manipulation, and control… and when these things are engaged, there is always collateral damage.
Don’t force what you feel is coming, don’t push and strive in your own strength to bring about an outcome; trust God that his spirit is at work. Just as God is in all things and through all things, he is with you in the moment of, “how on earth am I going to do this.” He had those moments himself many times: early in the morning, late in the evening, on mountain sides alone praying, in the desert wandering, in a garden sweating blood…
Sometimes we need to surrender to the spirit that divinely connects us all and works mysteriously behind the scenes, weaving faith and hope into our lives, unseen and unknown. Sometimes we just have to close our eyes and trust. And then, just as the Israelites did, pick up that shovel and get to it one scoop at a time, one brick at a time, one day at a time.
Spurgeon writes, “At this hour, a mountain of difficulty, distress, or necessity may be in our way, and natural reason sees no path over it, or through it, or around it. Let faith come in, and straightaway the mountain disappears and becomes a plain. But faith must first hear the word of the Lord, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” This grand truth is a prime necessity for meeting the insurmountable trials of life.
I see that I can do nothing and that all reliance on man is vanity. “Not by might.” I see that no visible means can be relied on, but the force is in the invisible Spirit. God alone must work, and men and means must be nothing accounted of. If it be so that the Almighty God takes up the concerns of his people, then great mountains are nothing. He can remove worlds as boys toss balls about or drive them with their foot. This power he can lend to me. If the Lord bids me move an Alp, I can do it through his name. It may be a great mountain, but even before my feebleness it shall become a plain for the Lord hath said it. What can I be afraid of with God on my side?”
