Come Up To Me On This Mountain

Over the last year, I’ve written “I trust you” in my journal more times than I can count. It’s funny how I need to write it over and over again. Somehow the act of writing it etches it into my soul. It takes it deeper. “Jesus, I trust you.” There’s so many things I don’t understand yet I feel this inexplicable peace that beckons me, “be still, you can trust Jesus”.

It’s so easy to make our relationship with God less of a relationship and more of a transaction. I find myself wanting to have the what, when, where + why before I’ll settle into God’s presence. There’s too much to do, too much to understand, yet God is ever patient with me in my messiness. He waits there for me on the mountain. Waiting for me to put down my list and just rest in Him. Waiting for me to receive His love and His relationship that He gave everything to have. He waits there for me to simply be with Him.

You see, God is faithful and worthy of my trust. He is ever working for me, going before me and staying so near, intentionally pursuing my heart. We were never meant to be robots, mindlessly following a God shouting out instructions to us. From the very beginning of creation, it was always about relationship. We cannot miss this part!

Being able to trust God with my everything, my hopes, my dreams, my futures, my days and my finances, doesn’t happen on accident, it all comes out of relationship. We can’t spend so much time searching for the will of God for our lives, for our calling, that we miss out on knowing Him. While I press in to knowing Him, to being with Him- there comes the breakthrough of my trust beyond circumstance.

So I will spend my days, waking up and pursuing the heart of God. I will learn to trust slowly but surely, as I discover more about Him and His character. The greatest adventure we have at our fingertips is walking in intimacy with God. He’s asking us to come up on the mountain to meet with him. So I’m embracing this adventure with everything I have. I will meet with you there my God.

JESUS, I TRUST YOU.

“COME UP TO ME ON THIS MOUNTAIN…”

EXODUS 24:1

WORDS + PHOTOS BY TIFFANY LAMBERT.

TIFFANY IS FULL TIME WITH YWAM SAN DIEGO/BAJA AND LEADS THE PHOTO-STORYTELLING DTS. 

In the Waiting

Does a delayed response or fulfillment of a promise from the Lord signify a closed door? The well meaning and often used expression rings loudly “If God closes a door, he will open a window.” This can be true, but not all the time. God truly does know best, and sometimes His best for us looks different then the door we attempt to go through at first. Other times this is not the case. Often, God will wait until circumstances look impossible to do the impossible and prove His sovereignty. He works for His glory and our good. He doesn’t speak things in advance to mess with us or discourage us. He speaks in advance to build up our faith, to refine our trust and to prove to us that He really is who He says He is and His word does not come back void. He does not delay and He is not impatient, but rather He is so specific when he implements things, not just in the scriptures but also in the lives of all those who believe in him in faith.  Just because things look unlikely or unrealistic, does not mean that God is not going to move. Out of intimacy and knowing God, we can navigate when a door closed means move on or when it means keep knocking.  That is the nature of walking with God. He is the Good Shepherd, gently guiding us even when we fear or don’t understand. He is cultivating our faith and our trust. 

25 years after God promised Abraham descendants as many as the stars, Isaac, the child of promise, was born. It had seemed impossible. Sarah’s womb was dry + barren. There was no hope for an heir, yet God had a miracle in mind. Sarah and Abraham were able to rejoice in the fulfillment of the promise and God working in their lives in miraculous ways. God had done as he promised and in her old age, Sarah nursed her very own son. Abraham’s faith had grown  as he discovered more of who God was in the waiting. At the perfect time, as Abraham’s character had developed and he had come to have fear of the Lord, the promise was fulfilled. Years later, when the testing came and God asked for Abraham to sacrifice his only heir, the fulfillment of his promise and the source of great joy and redemption, he did not hesitate to sacrifice. He trusted in His God, because He had gotten to know him in the mean time.

The question is not so much about when the fulfillment of things will come but what are God’s purposes in the waiting. God’s timing is different than ours and His ways are above our ways. He is not casual or unconcerned with timing, rather He moves in intentionality and sovereignty over His people. We may not always understand but we have the beautiful opportunity to have a response of faith in the waiting. 

What are the things God is asking you to believe for? What will you do in the waiting? 

“So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11 

Words + Photos by TIFFANY LAMBERT.

TIFFANY IS FULL TIME WITH YWAM SAN DIEGO/BAJA AND LEADS THE PHOTO-STORYTELLING DTS.