Daily Devotional – 5/7/13 “Get a squirrel like mentality!”

This time last year, this was the topic of my devotional and as I sat here thinking about what to write; this seemed to fit. Why, because we have so many people giving up and giving in when this isn’t how God equipped up. Like I shared on yesterday, Galatians 6:9 says, “So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.” See, when a squirrel climbs it doesn’t matter if rain is falling, if the wind is blowing or even if there are branches in its way because it has somewhere to go. Shouldn’t this be the same for us? Yea, it may be raining in your life and it seems like you’ll never get it right because you keep going left but keep climbing. You may have received bad news from the doctor but you’re not dead, so keep climbing. You may have even received a pink slip or was laid off from your job but you’re still capable of working, so keep climbing. Even if you’ve applied for 10 jobs and they all said no, keep climbing. Deuteronomy 28:13 says, “If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.” On your Christian journey, you will encounter some branches of hate; some leaves of hurt and a few rough places called mistakes but keep climbing and don’t give up. Besides, no one ever told you the road you’re walking or the mountain you’d be climbing would be easy, so why do you give up so easily?

You do know that as you go along and the higher you get, you will be knocked down when the wind starts blowing and the branches start swinging or that you’ll probably get cuts on your hands and knees from climbing, so why are you crying? Get up, dust yourself off, and clean up the wounds you have, bandage the cuts and try again. Just like a baby squirrel has to learn to climb, so do we. And just because you’ve probably reached the top it doesn’t mean that you won’t sometimes fall and even if you never fall all the way to the bottom, you can still fall enough to make you take notice. This is because sometimes, we get to the high places and forget about who got us there. We start making a little more money and then stop paying tithes. We start working a little bit more and then become too tired to fellowship with God. We start hanging out more with the top people and now God has been placed on the bottom and we have to wonder why he has to send us a reality check instead of a bonus check. Baby, God doesn’t elevate us so that we can become an earthly mess but he elevates us because he knows what we’re capable of being because it was He who designed us. Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

God says believe in me, accept me into your heart and work for me and then we stand before the church accepting God, get baptized, attend church for 2 Sundays and never come back but Ecclesiastes 5:4 says, “When you make a promise to God, don’t delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him.” God says have a mustard seed size of faith in Him but as soon as the ship starts rocking from the storms of life, we start doubting but God is asking, “Why are you afraid? ” Don’t you know that if folk knock you down, God can lift you up or when folk have walked all over you, He can clean you up and make you look and feel new? Aren’t you aware of the healing power God has in the hem of His garment, then why do you speak death and not life when Proverbs 18:21 say, “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences?” You are capable of climbing to higher heights but you have to first stop being afraid to climb. Get a squirrel like mentality and climb. However, don’t get there and look down at those below you but reach back and help others come up. What sense would it make for you to be alone when all you have to do is reach over and pull the next person up? God has enough power to give us all mountains and tree tops to reach but we have to keep climbing because there isn’t another way to reach the top without it!