Valleys Are For Learning

In the believer’s life in order to climb to the mountain top you must start in the valley!!  Many people love the mountaintop experience, they seem like vacations, in a way, where everything seems to go pretty smooth and you can relax a bit and even unwind and the stress level seems to drop and you may even feel closer to the Lord; your prayers are being answered and the victories over the enemy seem to be easier and you have a new confidence and boldness to continue the fight of faith which seems to be much easier.  It is like being revived, somewhat, like a revival in one’s self, if I can put it that way.  On the mountaintop it seems that is where relief comes from.

Now think of this scenario, a flower is way up on the mountaintop, just hanging out, no storms, no rain, no struggle, just sun, sun and more sun.  What will eventually happen?  The flower will shrivel up and die.  It cannot live without rain and shade, which would be the storms of life.  Believers respond kind of same way, if we never experienced the storms in life which some relate to the valleys, we would not grow and we could easily start taking God for granted and become unprofitable servants.  In the valley, it seems like you have to struggle more because that seems to be where the battle rages and we face difficult circumstances and situations, which I call the storms of life. These should be expected, but are usually not accepted well, where we face persecution from angry people and some of them, sad to say, claim to be believers, and also rejection from friends and even some family members.  Remember Jesus said in this world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.

There were times when Jesus went up on the mountaintop and spent time with His Father communing and fellowshipping, but then He came down and spent time ministering to the people and many of the religious people in His day wanted to kill Him and He had done nothing wrong, they were jealous of Him and His popularity.  One of His own disciples betrayed Him and one denied Him and all of them fled when He could have profited from their support.is Father but then He came down and spent time with people and mayHhh hhnnb        

Take the story of Job, I believe He lived on the mountaintop then He hit the wall, so to speak, what we might call the valley in his life and he didn’t like the situation he was in, in fact if you read the book of Job you will see the shock and him being blindsided, so to speak, and his overwhelming grief.  His emotions showed that he was human, but he never lost his faith even when his wife encouraged him to curse God and die.

Read Job 2:9-10, “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”

Job suffered much pain and also the loss of his kids, he was knocked down physically and emotionally and even spiritually and even though he was struggling he never gave up the faith.  He could have gone two ways, give up and throw in the towel on his faith or press in and trust his God, and that is what he did and he grew in his situation because he wouldn’t give up on God.  In the end Job repents in dust and ashes and his material things are restored and also his family.

Read Job 42:1-9, “Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job.”

God also blessed Job more than before.  Read Job 42:10-17, “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and full of days.”

In this process Job really got to know about God and not his preconceptions of who God was!!  When you are in the valley, you learn much more than when you are on the mountaintop.  Do you need to rediscover who God really is?  This is important, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Something to think about and may you have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!  And don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord for He is worthy!!