This blog post has been welling up in me over the past month or so. I only pray I can adequately express what has been stirring in my heart and how to hopefully encourage you with some things the Lord has been bearing witness to in my life. 

Whether stripped to nothing or gifted with everything – Jesus is still the greatest blessing we’ll ever know.  If He gives or if He takes away – only He is enough.

The picture above is from August 2017 in the Highlands of Scotland, specifically at Blair Castle.  This trip was an absolute dream for so many reasons, like the large number of family members, including my grandparents, and the special memories we made together. 

I didn’t realize the full extent of just how much this trip would mean to me until I returned home.  In my kitchen, about to start another day, I flipped a page of my daily, devotional, perpetual calendar (My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers) and literally gasped when I realized the images all throughout were sites in Scotland where I had just been.

The reason for my reaction? … Just a year and a half prior I was trudging through the lowest valley of my life and the daily truth’s presented in this calendar would often revive my soul and help me get through the day.  I had cried out to Him in prayer during those dark times asking that he would not only get me through the pain but somehow use it for His glory.  

During that moment in the kitchen, I realized that He had granted my request for a much weightier purpose behind my restoration than simple relief – he was calling me to higher ground, continuing to live out the incredible trust I had learned for His glory and His gospel. 

As the Lord promised, I did not stay in the valley. Just as he whispered to my heart, there would be victory, and it would be in His time and on His terms alone; He is sovereign. 

Recently I shared my personal story of trust with others, but it wasn’t well received by everyone. I was astonished when my victory was counted by a couple people as incomplete, and my declaration of freedom renounced. But by His grace and through the Holy Spirit and His word I did not surrender the higher ground.  

Higher ground is not the highest ground (the highest ground is not here, but in heaven). Our higher ground here on earth is for Him to decide and it will not be perfect. Higher ground is only attained and maintained if we surrender to His will completely, not 99% with a dash of “this person said the higher ground is this” or “this book said it would be that” or “I want my higher ground to have tulips on it” or “Lord, can’t my higher ground be free of any weeds?”

Sure, the Lord knows the desires of our hearts and it’s okay to ask him to remove the weeds/thorns in our life, or for him to bless us with x,y or z …. but we have to remember this: 

Whether stripped to nothing or gifted with everything – Jesus is still the greatest blessing we’ll ever know.  If He gives or if He takes away – only He is enough. 

2 Corinthians 12:9 

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 

Praise the Lord that I can look back and see His undeniable hand in orchestrating the very intricate details of my life, and know that His very Word bears witness to all that is true. 

2 Timothy 1:8 -12 ESV

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,  who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

No matter where we are presently in our lives, whether in a deep valley or the Highlands of Scotland, I pray we would receive a confidence in Him alone that would remain free of any strings attached to our own or other’s opinions, never forgetting that there is only one person with nail scarred hands and as we seek that person first, we will hold the higher ground. 

I Know Whom I Have Believed Daniel W. Whittle, pub.1883

1. I know not why God’s wondrous grace
   To me He hath made known,
   Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
   Redeemed me for His own.
   • Refrain:
     But “I know Whom I have believed,
     And am persuaded that He is able
     To keep that which I’ve committed
     Unto Him against that day.”
2. I know not how this saving faith
   To me He did impart,
   Nor how believing in His Word
   Wrought peace within my heart.
3. I know not how the Spirit moves,
   Convincing men of sin,
   Revealing Jesus through the Word,
   Creating faith in Him.
4. I know not what of good or ill
   May be reserved for me,
   Of weary ways or golden days,
   Before His face I see.
5. I know not when my Lord may come,
   At night or noonday fair,
   Nor if I walk the vale with Him,
   Or meet Him in the air