Happy Trails: Journey Through the Psalms of AscentSample

In this wild adventure of life with Jesus, our faith will inevitably become tested through fires and floods. This even is for our deepest good, forging spiritual perseverance. (James 1:3) During those times, our feelings will likely dictate to us that we have been left alone to find our way out by God and that we have been left vulnerable, surrounded only by our struggles. We must choose at all times to look not with the eyes of the flesh but instead through the lens of faith. For “as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people, from this time forth and forevermore.” (Verse 2, ESV)

You are anything but left alone to fight your enemies and temptations. As a child of God in Christ, the Lord has promised Himself to be a barrier of divine protection, more unyielding than the grandest peaks of earth, both today and 1,000 years from today. You are in every definition of the words, completely secure, not because of any impressive work in your will, but because of who you have on your side, on all sides, for all of your days. May you choose today to abide within this shelter that the Lord provides, depending on His goodness and power instead of your own.

1. In what area in your life today do you feel most vulnerable?
2. How does seeing that you are surrounded by God strengthen your confidence in this area?
3. Do you struggle to see through the lens of faith? Ask the Lord for an increase in your faith.