One more step...

One more step up this hill... One more step to repairing relationships... One more step along these rocks... One more step into healing...

Today, me and some team members visited the Judeaen hills and hiked from Battir back to Beit Jala.  I do not recommend this after a morning before of hip workouts. 

As we walked the first trail it took everything I had not to give up. We were only 5 minutes in and that uphill climb was just terrible. I had to mentally keep myself from having a nervous break down (since I had previously been fighting a depression attack from the enemy this week). I couldn't breath, and because I couldn't breathe I couldn't talk. It was misery, but I pressed through and before long we made it to the first rest area. Thank God it became down hill from there! 

Cheesy as it may be, but Jesus never really promised that the hill would not be hard to climb. Those times when we are fighting every obstacle (rocks, uneven road, and slippery slopes), God is there cheering us on. "One more step...." To the next one, and then one more step to the one after that. Always keep moving, one foot in front of the other.

Through the middle of the trail when we all happen to split up. The three I was with asked about the issues of depression I had faced the previous week. This relationship repairing with my parents to has taken its toll on my emotions. And as I was talking one of them said, "I have a word for you. Jesus says, "one more step...." That hit home for me. Especially being on trail that seemed to not end.

That same team member asked if she could pray for me and of course I allowed her. So we walked and prayed (with our eyes open), inviting the Holy Spirit into that valley on that trail, and thanking God for His healing on my life. I wish I could explain the freeing of it! 

Finally, we reached the end of that last hill and I was ready to collapse. Thankfully, Jesus has perfect timing because here came our superintendents wife on her way back home. But, I made it!! One step at a time.

James 1:4

“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-26

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.”

    

                            Going down hill.

Hills as far as the eye can see!