If you’ve ever tried to wander around in the darkness and stubbed your cold toes in the night you’ll know how painful that is. The pain shoots through your bone and sometimes up into your shin. Why was the couch in that position anyway? Shouldn’t the couch know better than to just sit there?  Perhaps you have gone camping and while walking to the ladies room at night you stumble over a rogue rock that purposefully set itself in your path just to play a cruel joke on you. So many times when we hurt ourselves we may say words we don’t normally say. We place blame on the outward than realize our part on the inward. It’s not the couch, nor the rock that caused us to stumble, nor is it their fault we said those things we had to apologize for.

The reason we stumble is because we are wandering in the dark. When we can’t see what is in front of us, then how can we safely maneuver through this cruel world? If we were walking in the Light we would have seen the couch or that stone and been able to make a decision before stepping in that direction. Maybe the stone is in our way and it’s on the path we must travel through in order to reach our destination. In that case, how can we expect to be able to walk around it? We certainly don’t want to stub our toe or stumble and fall over that stone. Is it the stone’s fault it is in our way? Should we use those unkind words to describe that stone for being in our pathway?

The feeling of frustration seems to overwhelm us as we shout our angry words at the stone and do all we can with all our might to cast away that stone. We try to pick it up and it just won’t budge. We yell, scream, and stomp our feet, but the stone isn’t going to move an inch! Then we look upward and say “God, can you PLEASE move this stone?!?” To which He replies gently, “No, daughter I will not.”

GASP* “He said no! What kind of a God is he anyway? Isn’t he aware of the pain that stone causes me every time I pass this way? Doesn’t he see that I can’t move that stone? I’ve tried and tried and it just won’t move. Why would he say no when it would help me so much. I’m his daughter so why won’t he move this obstacle out of my way?” We question God so much, when the problem is that we are asking amiss. So just how do we ask for help with such a large unmoveable stone that won’t remove itself from our path? Simply ask Him to lift us up.

Psalm 40:2, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.”

“So I ask God to lift me up, now what?” We lift our foot and step on the rock, where He transforms that stumbling block into a stepping stone. “Okay, so my toe isn’t bruised now, but those frustrated feelings plague my soul with bitterness over the last time I stubbed my toe or perhaps I sprained my ankle on that cursed rock! Now that I’m physically over that stone, what do I do about my bitter, angry heart? I lost my joy somehow while I was hurt and frustrated. Now what do I do?”

Psalm 27:6, “And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.”

Even Paul and Silas were imprisoned and they had done nothing wrong. Imagine being in prison and we were 100% innocent! What a lonely place to be, in the cold dark stone room, wondering where God is. He’s never left us. Sing praises to His Holy Name! Any time we sing praises to God, those evil influences of depression, bitterness, and frustration just cannot stay in us. They must flee. They despise the name of our Lord and refuse to stay in the presence of a daughter of the King who shouts praises to the King of Kings and gives the Father all the glory due His name. Even if the toe still hurts, praise him anyway. He even said that if man was not here he would make the rocks shout praises to him. So why leave it up to the dirty ol’ rock to sing His praises? Step up on that stepping stone and praise Him for who He is.

He didn’t move the stone out of our way. We stepped into the Light and He showed us the way. The way was not to go around it or to have it moved, but to step up onto the stone and rise higher. So sing praises to His name! We learn so much when we allow our paths to be directed by our Lord.

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