Recently, my wife and I drove through the Boston Mountains, a beautiful part of the Ozarks Plateau. We ate lunch at a cafe built atop mount Judea, overlooking the Buffalo National River Valley, where I took the photo above. It struck us as we drove that some of the roads we traveled have seen little improvement in the last hundred years or so.
Sure, the roads have been maintained, but they have not been improved. They follow the same paths that they did when they were first laid down. They run along the ridges, twisting and turning with the mountain, hugging precariously to peaks, and slaloming into mountain valleys.
To be honest, these unapproved roads are part of the appeal of the Ozarks. They lend the area a certain rustic charm. Many find comfort knowing that there are parts of the country that still look and feel much like they did fifty or a hundred years ago.
That got me thinking, though. Christians are to be quite the opposite of these old highways. As we travel life’s path, God asks us to change. We should not stay the same course that we did when Christ first saved us. If we allow Him, He will straighten our paths, strengthen our resolve, fill us with His power and love, and develop in us the self-discipline necessary to mature and help others.
Do you want to be like Jesus? God promises in 2 Timothy 1:7 to give us the power to truly be Christ-like.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 NIV
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