Wings of Healing Worship Center

In that classic book, The Pilgrim’s Progress written by John Bunyan, we find the allegory of a man who is on his way to heaven and is having to traverse through all sorts of obstacles and hindering elements that work to impede their progress.

Such is the case when they reach what Bunyan refers to as the Hill of Difficulty. At the bottom of this hill is a spring of cool, clear water. Christian stops for a drink before his difficult climb. While he is lingering, he notices that on either side of the hill are two alternate ways but the “narrow Way” is the one leading straight up the side of the mountain.

He becomes aware of the names of these two paths, one is called Danger leading to a dark forest of trees and the other is named Destruction and it carries the traveler through a dark and daunting mountain range. Those who take these two paths never recover.

-These are his words as he begins to take on the next challenge in his walk toward the Celestial City:

The Hill, though high, I desire to ascend;

The difficulty will not me offend;

For I perceive the way to life lies here:

Come, be strong, heart, neither faint nor fear.

Better, though difficult, the right way to go,

Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.

It does not take long in serving the Lord to realize that there are difficulties that will place themselves in the path of our faith.  There are times in which we will make mistakes and will have to overcome the challenges that comes along with that.  One of the hardest things to do sometimes is confess those things to the Lord and to others we may have wronged.  As hard as it may be to take that step confessing to a merciful God is the first step of repentance.  The tragedy is not when a believer makes a mistake it is when we fail to take responsibity for that mistake.   

There comes a time in a person’s journey with God that they have to move from casually serving God to seriously serving God.

Mark my words – there will be those who will mock your devotion – sometimes people right inside the church.

Opposition and difficulty are sometimes part of serving God – along with acceptance and much joy!