For When You are Circling Mountains
By Jessica McGuire

“I’ll be with you,” God said. “And this will be the proof that I am the one who sent you: When you have brought my people out of Egypt, you will worship God right here at this very mountain” (Exodus 3:12 MSG).

There is a mountain near our home. It raises up out of the countryside lonely and covered in green. For the past seven years that mountain has shadowed my life. In my periphery as I run my errands. Off in the distance as I race down the highway. It stands there tall, singular, and beautiful – one lone mountain without a range.

I feel like I have been circling that mountain for a very long time.

When those Israelites were finally free from the Egyptians they gathered at the mountain God had promised. It was there that they learned a few lessons about themselves and about God. They learned who He is, what He expects, and how He is serious when He says He wants to be their ONE and ONLY God. It was there that they learned a few lessons about God vs. idol worship.

When they burned down all their gold to make a golden calf, impatient and wanting their own way in their own time, the Israelites proved they still had a lot to learn about what living in freedom looks like.

You could say that the Israelites repeatedly stumbled over their corporate love idols.

These last seven years of my own mountain circling I bow low in admitting that I have had to learn some of the same lessons. I’ve doubted Him and stumbled over my own two feet. I had to learn how to worship for real, and this is coming from a former church worship leader. I had to learn facedown prayers. God had to teach me how to love Him, as the Gift Giver, more than the gifts He gives. I’ve had to melt the idols of people-pleasing, approval-seeking, and craving the audience’s applause. Man, did I love that platform and spotlight.  I had to learn to let go of all the things that I had believed would give me legitimacy in favor of the inheritance God gives me as His beloved child.

Circling Mountains is never a futile endeavor.

Not when love idols need laid low. Not when time is needed to release what does not matter to take up the only One that does.

I do not know when God will tell me to stop my mountain circling and move on. I do know that this has been my training ground. As it says in Love Idol, “The cure is the process.” It is in this process of circling the mountain that He has taught me the most about the idols I’ve worshiped and the things I’ve placed above Him in my life. He has taught me how to let go and Let Him. He has taught me the art of bowing low.

He is an expert at those times in the wilderness … circling mountains.

You can trust Him.

He has got this.

“And the LORD spoke to me, saying, ‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north…” (Deuteronomy 2:3 NASB).

Jessica is wife to a man who makes her laugh out loud. She is mother to two girls and two boys (the sweetest kids you will ever meet) with blessing number five due this fall. She has spent the last few years writing, walking the path, circling the mountain, taking photos of the small things, enjoying the laughter of her family, learning how to pray with her face in the carpet, living with a hopeful, expectant heart and yes, she is a holy mess. You can find her writing and photography on her blog. 

THE LOVE IDOL MOVEMENT

Click here to find out more about the Love Idol movement.

Click here to purchase the book that inspired the movement.

Click here to join us on Facebook as we lay down our Love Idols and declare our #preapproved status in Christ.

THE PRINTABLES

Click here to print the black and white preapproved cutouts.
Place these where ever your Love Idols have lurked!

A pink PreApproved printable: to frame, to put on your refrigerator, to give to a friend.
Click here to print. My gift to you, brave soul!