“When I shut up the heaven and there is no rain, or when I command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence on My people, if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:11-14 Modern English Version)
At a 1996 men’s retreat held at a secluded conference center, located in a serene, wooded area, a group of Christian businessmen gathered two days to focus on being “Committed to the Climb.” The theme of the conference was borrowed, with permission, from a book that I published in 1990 with that same title. Even if you never read the book, you are reminded every day as you finish reading a Mark Writes meditation to make a commitment to advance higher, ascend with a focus on escaping mediocrity, and to actively rise up on the figurative mountain of spiritual maturity on a daily basis. Hopefully, the short phrase that appears before my name at the bottom of every meditation is not skipped but rather seen as a personal challenge.
The two-day conference had several selected speakers, senior pastors, a president of a Bible college, a bank vice-president, an advertising agency director, and yours truly. While all the speakers focused on growing and going higher consistently as a Christian, and each presentation was motivational, the segment that stood out to me was centered around prayer and humility. I still remember the sub-topic and I want to share it with you this morning. Why? Because I am convinced that it will help you continue your personal climb spiritually and simultaneously affect others and as the number affected swells, our nation, communities, neighborhoods, and homes will be blessed by God.
Here is the title of the segment that continues to resonate in my heart, and it was inspired by the scriptures above and below. “The Way Up Is Down.” Read today’s verses and mediate on them and see how the Lord speaks specifically to you, helping you to recognize the real, proven way up. Have a tremendously good day! Be blessed!
“Have this same attitude in yourselves which was in Christ Jesus [look to Him as your example in selfless humility], who, although He existed in the form and unchanging essence of God [as One with Him, possessing the fullness of all the divine attributes—the entire nature of deity], did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or asserted [as if He did not already possess it, or was afraid of losing it];but emptied Himself [without renouncing or diminishing His deity, but only temporarily giving up the outward expression of divine equality and His rightful dignity] by assuming the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men [He became completely human but was without sin, being fully God and fully man]. After He was found in [terms of His] outward appearance as a man [for a divinely appointed time], He humbled Himself [still further] by becoming obedient [to the Father] to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also [because He obeyed and so completely humbled Himself], God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow [in submission], of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess and openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (sovereign God), to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11 The Amplified Bible)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King