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For some people, it’s a protracted illness. For others, it’s a wayward child. For still others, it’s a persistent problem that never seems to change or improve.

I am talking about the mountains of life. I once heard a minister say that mountains are the perfect biblical illustration for the issues of life.

Mountains are big. They seem immovable. Yet we find out in God’s Word, that by faith and prayer, God does move mountains.

Jesus said to His disciples, “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matt. 17:20).

Now, I am in no way a name-it-and-claim-it Christian. In fact, few things bother me more than that destructive ideology. I cannot stand the prosperity gospel, which often portrays suffering as a sign of spiritual weakness.

Each of us have mountains in our lives. Whether we are weak or strong in our faith, we will have mountains. What I do know is that only God can move a mountain.

The famous Christian writer, Corrie Ten Boom, whose family suffered imprisonment and persecution from the Nazi’s, had many mountains in her life. Yet through it all, Corrie kept her eyes on Jesus. She went so far as to give thanks for the mountains in her life, including how she was brutally treated in a concentration camp.

In her beloved classic, ‘The Hiding Place,’ she said this: “Perhaps only when human effort has done its best and failed, (will) God’s power alone be free to work.”

Many times, I have used human effort to try to move a mountain; it has never worked. More than once, I begged the Lord to move a mountain in my life, and He did.

Today, as you stare down those mountains in your life—or when those mountains stare down at you—take it to the Lord in prayer. Ask Him for help, knowing that ultimately His divine will—not our human will or desires—will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Knowing that He cares for you, knowing that our God moves mountains.