One of my favorite places to visit and seek the Lord is at Mt. Hermon in the Santa Cruz mountains. There are spectacular redwood trees, streams, hikes, and silence. It is so peaceful, serene, and truly a place of rest. It was not always like this, though.
In a book called “Hearing from Heaven,” there is a chapter titled “Prayer…Moves Roads?” Mt. Hermon used to have a highway running right through the camp. Logging trucks would haul their loads through the grounds where campers and families would be walking. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before someone would get hit or hurt. The director of the camp, Bill Gwinn, went to the city to try and petition for an alternative road to be paved, but he got turned down because of the cost and the extensive job it would be.
Power in Prayer
So one day in 1969, after Bill had been praying on his knees, he decided to pray and ask the people to pray for God to do something supernatural to close the road down. And that is exactly what God did! The people prayed for several hours specifically concerning the road, and that night there was 8 inches of rain. In the morning, there had been a landslide. God had literally moved a mountain! The city ended up paving a completely different road around the camp, and to this day, you can walk to the end of the camp and see where the mountain moved.
Several years after God had moved the mountain, Corrie ten Boom, a missionary who lived through the Holocaust, visited the camp. She got to see the beautiful flowers, the lodges the men had updated, and the grounds. However, Corrie took no pictures. As they approached the slide area and told the story, she pulled out her camera and snapped a photo. When asked why she took the picture, she replied, “Only God can do that!”
My husband and I just celebrated 18 years of marriage and being in ministry. As I look back over the years, there have been specific “roadblocks” that we have faced timed and time again where we can’t seem to get through. This story had such an impact on my life! I am reminded that nothing is impossible with God and that if we have faith even as small as a mustard seed, the Lord will use it to move mountains (Matthew 17:20).
Only God can move the mountain of sin from our hearts and give us new life. Only God can cleanse and forgive and redeem. Only God can save a soul, and only God will carry us over the finish line when this life is over.
Wonder of God
I had the privilege of being a camp counselor for some precious girls, including my daughter at Wagon Train camp at Hume Lake this past month, and watched three of the girls give their lives to Christ. As I sat in wonder of God by looking up at the stars in the sky, I was reminded ONLY GOD could do all of this. He is the Creator, but He’s also the Sustainer of all things. The joy and tears of seeing these girls get saved remind me that there is nothing more significant than knowing God and being known by Him.
There have been seasons where I haven’t always focused on what God can do but on what God has taken away or where His clear answer has been “no.” And these are some hard roads to navigate. Especially when it’s something you really wanted or truly believed it’s what God was going to accomplish.
One of my greatest arsenals to combat doubt has been reminding myself of God’s love in the morning and his faithfulness at the end of the day.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night. Psalm 92:1-2
I also have kept a book of these things that God has done, and let me tell you, that book is full to the brim of stories where God answered incredible prayer and met us in the hardest of circumstances. It strengthens my faith. It refocuses my lens to the vision of trust and surrender. To live is Christ and to die is gain.
And for you today, dear sister, I pray this testimony of God’s power will pull you up out of any dark pit, challenging circumstance, or roadblock you are going through. And that the Lord would refresh your heart anew to see His amazing grace!
We go to this mountain at least once a year, and the last time we went, I picked up a limb that had fallen and took it home, and put it on my wall. It is an excellent reminder that the same God who parted the Red Sea still moves mountains today!
