"Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour" (Acts 3:1) Life is full of ups and downs. Sometimes our reaction to life's changing altitude determines our overall position in life and how successful we turn out in the end. It is not enough to know how to handle high times, we must also know how to get through the low times. The key to pulling through the down times is in realising that at the end of every down time is an up time - this is an unending cycle of life. It is inevitable. You can't stay down all your life; neither can you stay up all the time. When you have been beaten and shredded; left distraught and devastated - when you are at the depth of the lowest low; drag yourself up, dust yourself and get ready to go up!.
When is the time to go up? How do you know that you are about to go up? How to you initiate the process that will carry you up? The Bible says in Acts 3, that Peter and John went up to the Temple at the hour of prayer. Each time I read that passage, I am intrigued by the choice of words, they "went up". Wow! At the hour of prayer, Peter and John went up. How refreshing! The time of prayer is the time of going up. The time of prayer is a God-given opportunity to dig yourself out of the clutches of satan. When you pray, you go up. It doesn't matter how low you are, or how downtrodden life had left you, if you can make out time to go to God in prayer, you will see yourself going up.
It is not a coincidence that Jude v.3 says " But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost," When you pray, you build yourself up. When you pray, you start going up. The shackles of limitation break off as you start to pray.
As this month comes to an end, I don't know or care to know what has kept you down this July... but as you step into August, you will go up! Get ready to go up. Get ready to soar high. Get ready to move forward. That burden is lifted in Jesus name. Get up and go up