Plateaus – Part 2

James 1:2-4 “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Dr. Sproul explains that almost all of us started our Christian walk with enthusiastic gusto; to later have our development arrested and frozen as it reached a point of difficulty that signaled a plateau where we get stuck. We have a tendency to make a running start in certain enterprises and get all involved and engrossed in what we are trying to learn, achieve or do, but as soon as we run into an obstacle or we reach one of those difficult plateaus where we are temporarily stalled, there we quit – thinking that we've reached the limit of our ability and can go no further. We start, but we don’t finish what we started. But, the only way to advance in any enterprise is to persevere through that level, so that we can get beyond those roadblocks and move ahead. The higher we go in our attempts to master a procedure, the easier it is to get better and better because we grow and mature by experience. Life is a learning experience. We learn how to make it across plateaus.

Matthew 13:45-46 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

All of us are called to please God. Those who are serious about pleasing God are not casual about their pursuit of the kingdom of God. They storm the battlements of the enemy until they break through the strongholds because the pressing into the kingdom of God is the passion to possess the King’s Domain, even in ourselves. Pressing beyond the points of paralysis on plateaus, where things become so difficult that we stop. Remember the zeal, passion and fire of discovering Christ, but then we have to learn how to adjust to accommodate unbelieving friends, family and acquaintances to reach them at their level. Also learn to adjust our goals downward when we've plateaued and cooled off, until we've reached the other side and start advancing and ascending again. What pleases God is someone who signs up for the duration of the journey; someone who prays every day that “Thy Kingdom come and Thy Will be done.”; someone who spends their life seeking the kingdom of God in daily living. The American Theologian Pastor Jonathon Edwards said: “The seeking of the kingdom of God is not something that unbelievers do. The seeking of God is the chief business of the Christian.” It is a life-long enterprise and pursuit. To be a disciple is to come under the disciple of someone more mature; to go to a teacher to get over our periods of stalling plateaus; a teacher on the other side of that plateau, who could help bring the student/follower across the threshold and into a new liberation and freedom. The same is true in spiritual life and growth. Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lords of lords. Live in the presence of your King, under the authority of your King, and for the honor and glory of your King.

Matthew 6:8-13  Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

In Christ, Brian