A young boy was leading his little sister on a mountain track.

And when they reached a steep hill, the climb has become difficult and hard because of the rocks along the way.

The little girl became exhausted from climbing and exasperated with these rocks.

And so she yelled at her brother, this is not a good path at all.

It is rocky and bumpy.

And her brother said, sure.

But these are the rocks and the bumps that you step on to climb higher.

If you are growing in intimacy with Jesus, if you're growing in your love for Jesus, you will encounter obstacles and difficulties along the way.

You may, but you will.

You will face barriers and derailments along the way.

You will.

You will meet distractions and sidetracks all the time.

But the question is this, do these obstacles detract us from our love for

Jesus and growing in intimacy with Him, or do we see them as stepping stones for climbing higher

and growing deeper with Christ? Most often when we see these rocks and bumps along the way,

we let them cool our love for Jesus. We allow them to freeze the level of our intimacy with Jesus.

Now, these distractions are different to every one of us. What distracts me does not

distract you and vice versa. Every one of us have different kinds of distractions. But you

know them and I know them. The problem is that when these distractions come, we become used

to them in our life. They become part of life.

Sometimes, not in all cases, but sometimes blessings, prosperity, success can be one of these diversions for intimacy with Jesus.

But most often there are the illnesses, the difficulties, the problems, and the unanswered prayers.

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