Footholds

God spoke to me about footholds today. Normally we think about footholds in relation to the enemy, as in 'Don't give the enemy a foothold', but today, for me at least, it was in relation to the foothold of the discipline of a quite time. I had to fight my inclination to skip it, as I only had ten minutes, and was that really worth it. I was drawn to pray for help as I recognised this was not a good situation. Lord, I prayed, don't let me lose this foothold. Then, to myself, Where did that come from!?

Then the idea that these disciplines are like a foothold on the rockface. I've been reading Psalm 84 a lot and the 'hearts set on pilgrimage' thing is  fresh in my mind. It's like the ascent of the mountain and the 'appearing before God in Zion' bit (Zion also a mountain) is the summit of our pilgrimage. Blessed are those, it says, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage....they go from strength to strength.

These disciplines are like footholds on the sheer rockface. and we have to fight for and find every one. Fellowship. Prayer. The word. Practising love. All hand holds and footholds.

Three points of contact and always reaching for the fourth.

And then I pictured what prayerlessness I could fall into if I did not fight for my 5 minutes. That it might become a habbit to skip it, and it could be weeks, even months to recover, and it was as though I had fallen off the cliff face. And as I plunged downwards, I saw that it was not to my death, because there was this safety rope, anchored by the pioneer who had gone up the mountain 1st. And it was grace and love, this safety line. It was salvation, but the fall was costly, and the work to get back was harder for it. 

Don't lose your foothold. Keep you momentum upwards. 

Sometimes you may find a ledge, where you may rest. Where you are more secure, and sometimes you may slip, and take a battering, as you slam against the side of the mountain on your way down and bounce around on the end of that safety rope. Keep your upwards momentum.

And when you fall put it behind you and refocus on the prize. The one who loves you and the one whom you love.

It is not loss of performance that matters but loss of relationship. This is the true tragedy of a slip. Keep the relationship, don't let the relation-slip.