Common ground is a place where love, peace, discovery and anything else that is good can be found. People fall in love at common ground. They find something in another person they can relate to and begin to feel the pull of attraction that can eventually lead into long-lasting love. Arguments can subside at common ground. This place is where people decide to focus on keeping their relationships rather than their differences and can agree to disagree. New discoveries are made at common ground. Every person that lived before has either laid the groundwork of new inventions and discoveries or has added to the knowledge of these discoveries. And then there are those who come after them that have fallen in love with that new knowledge and expand upon it creating new breakthroughs for the next generation.
Common ground can be synonymous with level ground. In a spiritual sense, we can think of it also as a training ground to get us ready to climb to new heights. In the book of Matthew, there is an interesting passage right before Jesus speaks to the crowd in His well-known Sermon on the Mount. The passage states that Jesus met the crowd and “stood on level ground.”
This verse is simple yet very profound. Jesus had met the people where they were at – common ground. He had sparked their interest and opened a pathway to take them to a deeper meaning and purpose in life. This in and of itself was a miracle as His sermon was radical and extreme in nature and not a popular message for the culture. Love your enemies? Blessed are those who are poor and those who mourn? For people who lived in poverty and were severely oppressed under the powerful hand of the Roman Empire, this was most likely not a message that they wanted to hear. But it was the message that they needed because it would challenge their very thinking in order to bring them to breakthrough to the true freedom that they sought – freedom in Christ.
Jesus wants to meet you at common ground. The good news is that this is not a far off distant land that will take you years in order to reach. You do not need years of education and a doctorate in order to enter this place. There is no large entrance fee you have to pay once you arrive. Common ground is where you are at today right now in this very moment. Meet Him at common ground and tell Him what is on your mind and your heart and then listen for His voice to renew your mind and direct you to new heights.
God, life with You is truly an adventure. Sometimes it is hard, tiring, challenging, and dark. But these difficult times pale in comparison to the new heights that only You can bring me to. Life with You with half has hard and twice as good. I love You.
Matthew 6:17 – “Then He came down with them and stood on level ground.”
transcript captions captioning transcription sermons
Simple Prayer For Today 