{"id":518,"date":"2011-09-28T19:00:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T23:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=518"},"modified":"2011-09-28T14:19:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-28T18:19:00","slug":"going-to-the-high-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/09\/going-to-the-high-places.html","title":{"rendered":"Going to the High Places"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever noticed how cats love to climb up to the high places in your house?\u00a0 Mine will even jump up to the top of the fireplace or refrigerator just to check out the view.\u00a0 My husband gets quite annoyed at them because they tend to knock things off.\u00a0\u00a0 I keep telling him that it&#8217;s a cat&#8217;s nature to climb and be curious.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2011\/09\/IMG_03912.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-540\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/259\/2011\/09\/IMG_03912-300x283.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"283\" \/><\/a>We have nice little kitty beds for our four legged babies.\u00a0 We put them in front of the fireplace in the winter and under a fan in the summer.\u00a0 Do they sleep in those cozy little beds?\u00a0 No, they don&#8217;t!\u00a0 Noodles would rather climb up on our antique tall boy cabinet to take a snooze.\u00a0 That means we can&#8217;t put anything breakable up there or it may end up shattered on the hearth.<\/p>\n<p>When we were cleaning closets the other day, Smudge decided to climb as high up as he could get in the closet and take a nap on this box full of books.\u00a0 They both seem to be happiest when they are in the high places looking down on their world.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, that Christians would desire the high places.\u00a0 Too often we settle for whatever comes our way, instead of seeking God&#8217;s best for us.\u00a0 It&#8217;s like the difference between pecking the ground with the chickens or soaring with the eagles.\u00a0 Pecking takes much less energy and most are content in that place.\u00a0 We wouldn&#8217;t want to be labelled a religious fanatic.<\/p>\n<p>In Isaiah 55:8-9 says, &#8221; For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.\u00a0 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.&#8221;\u00a0 Seeking to be in a higher place with God is a good and honorable desire.\u00a0 We should not allow ourselves to be satisfied with the ordinary when God has made a way for us to go to higher places.<\/p>\n<p>When we go to the higher places, we can get a better perspective of our situations.\u00a0 \u00a0Because we are above our situation, we can see it more clearly.\u00a0 When we go to the high places we can begin to think as God thinks; we can begin to problem solve like God would.\u00a0 When we go to the high places we can find a new closeness with our God and a refreshing of His Spirit.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever noticed how cats love to climb up to the high places in your house?\u00a0 Mine will even jump up to the top of the fireplace or refrigerator just to check out the view.\u00a0 My husband gets quite annoyed at them because they tend to knock things off.\u00a0\u00a0 I keep telling him that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[15,19,39],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","tag-caring-for-our-pets","tag-faith","tag-spiritual-growth"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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