Warnings of the Lowlands

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Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, defeat, devotions, encouragement, enemies, family devotions, focus, low experiences, lowlands, pride, real enemies, victory

Last week, we discovered that the word sycamore actually means rebirth. We talked about how more fruit can be born in the lowlands than on the mountains and how we need to embrace our lowland experiences.

This week, I want us to talk about some things to be aware of when we are in the midst of a lowland experience. Some warnings, if you will.

Warning number one: Lowlands must be defeated just like the mountains.

In my own life, I realize that the mountains in my life must be conquered, but often I just try to survive a lowland experience. Who can think about conquering a land when you are barely breathing through it? But, in the Old Testament, Joshua left nothing undone. He led the children of Israel to have victory over every terrain. Joshua 11:15 says, “Just as the LORD had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses. Thus Joshua took all the land: the hill country and all the Negev, all that land of Goshen, the lowland, the Arabah, the hill country of Israel and its lowland…” Joshua recognized that the lowlands were just as important to defeat as the highlands. We need to do the same.

Warning number two: There are real, actual enemies in our lowlands.

Joshua 9:1 and 2 says, “Now it came about when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country and in the lowlands and on all the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, heard of it, that they gathered themselves together in one accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel.” What did all these kings hear about? They heard about Israel claiming the ground that the Lord had already given them. We must not be surprised when the kingdom of darkness notices our victories. If we start having victory in one area, every other area will likely feel like it’s getting hit with a two-by-four (spiritually speaking, of course). That’s the way our enemy works. The neat thing about this though is that many enemies are able to be defeated at once! Our God is definitely able to do that. He says in Matthew 19:26, “…With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

We must remember though that sometimes the enemy in our lowland experience is ourselves. Hebrews 12:10-11 says, “…He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” So, in looking at enemies in the lowlands, I must ask myself if my lowland experience is my own doing. If so, I John 1:9 assures us that when we confess, He forgives.

Real enemies are in our lowlands, but the Lord can defeat every, single one just as He did for the children of Israel. Be encouraged that our God is stronger than our enemies whether it’s one, or one hundred.

Warning number three: Don’t get stuck in the lowlands!

When we are in a lowland experience, we must keep making progress. Imperfect progress it may be (as Lysa Terkeurst calls it), but progress just the same. Psalm 78:47 says, “He destroyed their vines with hailstones and their sycamore trees with frost.” You remember from last week that sycamore trees were grown in the lowlands and here we see that God sent frost on the trees. Not good. This means that any fruit that was on the sycamore trees, any seeds, any sycamore figs were now rendered useless. We must remember that if we refuse to keep making progress in our lowlands, the fruit that was so hard fought for and won will eventually be killed with frost. Think about all the Christians you know who used to be active in a church body, but now grief, bitterness, unforgiveness, or anger has festered so deep that all we see now is a frosted over, hard shell of a Christian. It’s so sad, isn’t it? No one remembers the former fruit. They just see frost. Let’s not allow that to happen to us. Proverbs 4:25 and 26 says, “Let your eyes look directly ahead, and let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet, and all your ways will be established.”

Frost is hard to cultivate on a moving object. Let’s keep moving, people!

Last Warning: Don’t despise what the lowlands represent.

The lowlands represent humility, subjection, rebirth and renewal for us. Let’s be honest, that just doesn’t sound like a great time. We want the mountain. We want the breeze blowing through our hair and on our faces. The lowlands sound like hard work. They sound like a fight. They sound like… submission.

Isaiah 9:9 and 10 tells us that the hearts of the people were arrogant. They wanted cedars in place of sycamores. They didn’t want a humble, fruitful tree. They wanted cedar trees instead. They wanted tall, straight, no weaknesses showing, imposing cedar trees. We have that tendency as well. We don’t actually say it out loud, but we do want people to notice us. We want them to notice our progress. We want people to see how strong we are, or at least, how strong we want to be. We just want a few honorable mentions. After all, sycamores are only mentioned 8 times in the Bible, but cedars are mentioned 75. Wouldn’t it be better to be a cedar?

Dangerous thinking, isn’t it? We need to allow God to remind us that all glory goes to Him. All honor should be placed on Him. We can’t make it one step without Him, so He deserves every single ounce of praise. Cedars were in the Temple, sycamores were not. We often find ourselves wanting just a spot in the Temple. We understand people come to worship God, but we wouldn’t mind if someone happened to “ooh” and “aww” over how strong we are, how majestic, how faithful. We don’t want the whole Temple, just one, little bitty spot. Surely God is okay with that? I assure you He is not. He deserves our complete focus. He deserves every fiber of our being to be in full on praise to Him.

So, let’s remember that our lowlands have to be defeated just like any other area of our lives. Let’s remember our enemies are real, but God can and will give us victory over those enemies. Let’s remember to keep moving and not get stuck in the lowlands and let’s get humble before God and not despise what our lowlands represent. I promise not to notice if you appear to be a sycamore, or a cedar. I promise to keep my eyes on the Lord and I pray you will do the same.

Seeking Hearts Ministries

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Rebirth in the Lowlands

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all things for good, Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, devotions, directions, encouragement, exhaustion, family devotions, fruit, hills, lowlands, mountains, paths, trust, valleys

The other day my husband and I were discussing the Biblical account of Zaccheus. You remember, he’s the “wee, little man” who climbed up in the sycamore tree to see Jesus (Luke 19). As we were talking, he told me about a discovery that he had made recently. He said that the name “sycamore” actually meant “rebirth”. So, when Zaccheus chose to climb that sycamore tree, he was actually choosing to be in a place where rebirth could occur. In those first steps to find Jesus, he was trying to draw nigh to God and we know from James 4:8 that when we draw nigh to God, He’ll draw nigh to us. He just can’t help Himself. It’s who He is.

This discussion led me to look up every time the word sycamore was used in the Bible. What I found was so neat! There are eight occurrences in the Bible regarding sycamore trees and almost every single one refers to where they were grown. They were grown in the land of Judah in a place called Shephelah. It just so happens that Shephelah is in the lowlands, actually it is the term used for the whole region of the lowlands. In First Kings 10:27, it says, “The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the lowland.” Other references to where they are grown are in First Chronicles 27:28, Second Chronicles 1:15, and Second Chronicles 9:27. The fact that sycamores are grown in the lowlands reminded me that rebirth can only happen when we humble ourselves, when we are willing to seek God’s face in meekness and when we are willing be in the lowlands.

I think that Christians and non-christians alike don’t enjoy being in the lowlands of life. We would just rather not be anywhere that is not a mountain top experience. We all like to be riding high on life. The lowlands? No, thank you. We are fine on the mountain. When we do have a lowland experience, we want to run through it quickly, but we want to meander as slowly as possible when we are on the mountain.

In studying the geography of the lowlands I found that “the Shephelah was a zone of low, rolling foothills separating the high, rugged hill country of Judah from the flat, open coastal plain. The heavy runoff from the western slopes of the hill country flows into a series of six broad, shallow valleys furrowed into the soft limestone of the Shephelah, each of which is a focal point of rich, agricultural life. Historically, the Shephelah as a whole, and its six valleys in particular, has been a buffer zone between the hill country and the coast…” The Rose Then and Now Bible Map goes on to say that people in the Shephelah were more rural and conservative than on either side, but “the Shephelah, a true land between was desired by both.”

Even though the Shephelah was in the lowlands, it was desired because of the agriculture, because of the fruit it was capable of bearing. I pray that is how we begin to look at our lowlands, as places of rich fruit. The mountains are beautiful yes, but its climate is not conducive to growing much of anything. Have you ever seen huge fields of wheat, or a massive grove of fruit trees growing on the side of a mountain? Not usually. But, in the lowlands of the Shephelah there is rich agriculture. Everyone wanted the Shephelah region due to the yield that it was capable of producing. We should desire our lowlands as well knowing that in those places God can till and tend and grow fruit that we never dreamed possible.  John 15:8 tells us, “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” If fruit is in the lowlands, that’s where we want to be. When we understand the ministry of the lowlands, we find that they are places of replenishment, of rekindling and a place to develop a deeper level of trust in the Lord. The lowlands can be tough, but they are places of rebirth where everything has the possibility of change. The lowlands provide a feeding of our soul that otherwise would be missed if we were only on the mountains.

An amazing example of fruit in the lowlands are the early Christians in the book of Acts. The word fruit, or fruitful, is only mentioned twice, but these words don’t even have the same meaning as the fruit we are after. The book of Acts doesn’t have to say the word fruit for it to be obvious that a massive harvest was being produced. The Christians in the book of Acts were definitely in the lowlands physically speaking. They were being ridiculed, thrown in jail, beaten and even killed for the cause of Christ, but the fruit they bore was remarkable. In fact, their lowland experience is still bearing fruit today. They took advantage of it and put it to work for the Kingdom of God. Let’s be willing to do the same.

Psalm 25:10 says, “All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.” Let’s take God at His Word and be thankful for every path that He leads us to. Let’s not run through our lowlands as quickly as possible, but absorb every moment, every lesson and every opportunity to bear fruit. Before you know it we will be headed to the mountain once again with a bag full of fruit, shallowness of soul gone forever and a richer trust in the Lord than we ever thought possible. So, let’s be thankful for the lowands!

Seeking Hearts Ministries