How Many Times Have We Circled This Mountain?

Do any of you struggle? Do you struggle with temptation? Do you struggle with old, bad habits? Do you struggle with negative thinking? Do you struggle against yourself constantly?

Well, I ought to have some pretty built up muscles, because it seems as if I struggle against myself quite a lot.

I was just sitting there today thinking about the fact that once we have victory over something, once we have resisted temptation, once we have broken an old habit, once we have kicked out all of that old negativity...why do we allow it to slip back in? Why do we have our old sinful nature, our bad attitude, our untamed tongues, pinned down in a tight hold - defeated, only to allow them to creep back up and get us in a choke-hold again?

Are we gluttons for punishment? Do we enjoy the constant struggle?

I don't. I really don't, and yet, as I said before - I continue to struggle.

Well, once again, I picked up my handy Joyce Meyer devotional calendar, where God had a word just for me today, and I hope that it will speak to your hearts too...

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"Tuesday, August 5...

The people of the nation of Israel wandered around in the wilderness for forty years, a journey that should only have taken eleven days. Why? We really shouldn't look at the Israelites with such astonishment, because most of us do the same thing as they did. We keep going around and around the same mountains instead of making progress. The result is, it takes us years to experience victory over something that could have and should have been dealt with quickly.

Deuteronomy 1:2 It is [only] eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea [on Canaan's border; yet Israel took forty years to get beyond it]."

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There have been so many times that I have looked at the story of the Israelites and wondered "How, after all of the amazing miracles that they had seen, could they ever doubt that God would deliver on his promises?"

And yet, today, I find myself again in the position of one of the Israelites. I find myself once again circling the same mountain one more time.

God has made us overcomers. He has given us victory over every single weapon Satan would use against us, and He has given us victory over our old sinful nature. We are a new creation and old things are passed away, so let's stop looking up at the mountain and walking in circles, and focus our eyes on what is ahead, moving forward through His strength, into His promised land.

I'm tired of circling the mountain - I'm moving on...
Thank you, Jesus.