Monthly Archives: June 2026

Some Mountains You Weren’t Made to Climb

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: I got some climbing to do.

Me: Let me share this before you take another step.

This is from The Great House of God by Max Lucado

There are certain mountains only God can climb. The names of these mountains? You’ll see them as you look from the window of the chapel in the Great House of God. “Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever.” A trio of peaks mantled by the clouds. Admire them, applaud them, but don’t climb them.

It’s not that you aren’t welcome to try, it’s just that you aren’t able. The pronoun is thine, not mine, thine is the kingdom, not mine is the kingdom. If the word Savior is in your job description, it’s because you put it there. Your role is to help the world, not save it. Mount Messiah is one mountain you weren’t made to climb.

Nor is Mount Self-Sufficient. You aren’t able to run the world, nor are you able to sustain it. Some of you think you can. You are self-made. You don’t bow your knees, you just roll up your sleeves and put in another twelve hour day…which may be enough when it comes to making a living or building a business. But when you face your own grave or your own guilt, your power will not do the trick.

You were not made to run a kingdom, nor are you expected to be all-powerful. And you certainly can’t handle all the glory. Mount Applause is the most seductive of the three peaks. The higher you climb the more people applaud, but the thinner the air becomes. More than one person has stood at the top and shouted, “Mine is the glory!” only to lose their balance and fall.

“Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” What protection this final phrase affords. As you confess that God is in charge, you admit that you aren’t. As you proclaim that God has power, you admit that you don’t . And as you give God all the applause, there is none left to dizzy your brain.

Let’s let the lady on the slope teach us a lesson: There are certain mountains we weren’t meant to climb. Stay below where you were made to be, so you won’t end up exposing yourself to trouble.

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Ephesians 5:20 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Consider for A Moment

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Remember when?

Me: Yes, I do.

This is from No Easy Road by Dick Eastman

Consider for a moment the challenge of becoming an intercessor. The needs for intercessory prayer are staggering. Frank C. Laubach says, “All the following people need to be floodlighted with prayers: the President of the United States and Congress (especially Senate ), the Prime Minister and Parliament of England, Russia’s Premier and leaders, China’s leaders, delegates at every peace conference, Japanese, Germans, church members and the clergy of Christians and Jews, the missionaries, motion picture leaders, radio broadcasters, all kinds of slaves and oppressed peoples. We must pray for illiterates, for all teachers, mothers and fathers, for understanding between capital and labor, for human brotherhood, for cooperatives, for the enlargement of people’s minds to world vision, for children adn youth for wholesome literature, for victims of liquor, drugs and vices of all kinds, for educators and better education. We must pray for hatred to vanish and love to rule the world; we must pray for more prayer, for it is the world’s mightiest healing force.” Laubach’s list seems long, but even this is incomplete. Intercessors never lack needs to occupy prayer lists. Always flowing from the intercessor’s heart is prayer for someone, prayer that says, “I love you.”

And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. Mark 8:11 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Lord Beholds Thee

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: We’re starting on the short row. Just hang in there.

Me: All things can be done with Christ.

This is from I. Penington

O that thou couldst dwell in the knowledge and sense of this! Even, that the Lord beholds thy sufferings with an eye of pity; and is able, not only to uphold thee under them, but also to do thee good by them. Therefore, grieve not at thy lot, be not discontented, look not out at the hardness of thy condition; but, when the storm and matters of vexation are sharp, look up to Him who can give meekness and patience, can lift up thy head over all, and cause thy life to grow, and be a gainer by all. If the Lord God help thee proportionably to thy condition of affliction and distress, thou wilt have no cause to complain, but to bless His name.

And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: Numbers 16:2 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Indeed Perhaps

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Once in a blue moon.

Me: That is right.

This comes from Walking In The Spirit by A.B. Simpson

It is not necessary that we should always know. Indeed, perhaps we should never fully know what any of our prayers wholly mean. God’s answer is always larger than our petition, and even when our prayer is most definite and intelligent there is a wide margin which only the Holy Ghost can interpret, and God will fill it up in His infinite wisdom and love. That is what is meant by the significant language of the text, “He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, becasue He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Roma 8:27) The father is always searching our hearts and listening, not to our wild and often mistaken outcries, but to the mind of the Holy Spirit in us, whom He recognizes as our true guardian and monitor, and He grants us according to His petitions and not merely our words. But if we walk in the Spirit and are trained to know and obey His voice, we shall not send up the wild and vain outcrites of our mistaken impulses, but shall echo His will and His prayer, and thus shall every pay in according with the will of God.

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. John 7:37 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Does Not Rob Us

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: I’m flat broke today.

Me: Well, we will just lay low then.

This is from the book Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray

Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is noble and bold and manlike. Oh that all would believe that this is the nobility of the kingdom of heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King of heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the servant of all! This is the path to the gladness and the glory of Christ’s presence ever in us, His power ever resting on us.

And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company. Genesis 50:9 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Go Tell Thy Father

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Don’t live in the past.

Prodigal: Know Christ has given us a future.

This is from R. Leighton

Whatsoever it is that presses thee, go tell thy Father; put over the matter into His hand, and so thou shalt be freed from that dividing, perplexing care that the world is full of. When thou art either to do or suffer anything, when thou art about any purpose or business, go tell God of it, and acquaint Him with it; yea, burden Him with it, and thou hast done for matter of caring; no more care, but quiet, sweet diligence in thy duty, and dependence on Him for the carriage of thy matters. Roll thy cares, and thyself with them, as one burden, all on thy God.

Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry; Psalms 88:2 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Prayer

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Sometimes the way forward looks difficult to manage.

Prodigal: Yes, but we don’t walk the path alone.

This is from P. Melancthon

Trouble and perplexity drive us to prayer, and prayer driveth away trouble and perplexity.

The road you see, make you very uncertain what is going on around you. You want to focus on why it does not make sense, but that is not the point. The point is to take you along a journey that will show you how God works in people’s life and your own.

For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Acts 4:20 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

And Just So

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal; I’ll be darn, I’m in a tight spot.

Me: Yes, it looks like it.

This is from Andrew Murray

And just so God gives Christians the Holy Spirit with this intention, that everyday all their life should be lived in the power of the Spirit. A man cannot live one hour a godly life unless by the power of the Holy Spirit. He may live a proper, consistent life, as people call it, and irreproachable life, a life of virtue and diligent service; but to live a life acceptable to God, in the enjoyment of God’s salvation and God’s love, to live and walk in the power of the new life–he cannot do it unless he be guided by the Holy Spirit every day and every hour.

Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Galatians 4:12 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Be Reasonable

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Goin’ over yander.

Me: I will be there too!

This is from The Strong Family by Charles Swindoll

In it all you must be reasonable.

Perfect children do not live in your home or mine. Neither do perfect parents. Understand, there will be times when you will break your own rules. To live under the assault of constant guilt will do neither you nor your family any good. For lack of a better way to put it, leave a little “wobble room.” Try very hard not to demand perfection or to bring up past-and-forgiven wrongs or to set your expectation level to high. A family must remain a team. That means you must pull together..flex, adjust, give, take. When children grow up in a “reasonable” environment, they feel the freedom to fail without a ton of guilt falling all over them. They also grow up with better memories of how things were in their younger years.

Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief. Proverbs 14:13 (NIV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

External Testimony

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: That is pretty as a picture!

Me: It took a minute to finish.

This is from M.A. Schimmelpenninck

I believe that no Divine truth can truly dwell in any heart, without an external testimony in manner, bearing, and appearance, that must reach the witness within the heart of the beholder, and bear an unmistakable, though silent, evidence to the eternal principle from which it emanates.

And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 2 Thessalonians 1:7 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org