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Grace takes you from where you are, to where God wants you to be. It is to inherit a blessing, to see good days in your life, which is a promise from God, that carries with it a procedure; Whoever would love life and see good days, must keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. [1 Peter 3:10,11]
Peace as defined in God’s word is wholeness in you, having all that you need in life. And the peace of God, that you need to pursue, is not something that you need to cross seven seas to find and experience in your life. For, the Bible gives a very different dimension to it; something extraordinarily beautiful. The God of peace be with you all Amen. [Romans 15:33] And it is what the psalmist confidently declares in faith, to be his experience in life. I have set the Lord continually before me. He is at my right hand, and therefore I will not be shaken. [Psalms 16:8]
How does it become possible to apply and experience this truth in your life today ?
It happens when you focus on the word of God continually, when it is in the forefront of your thinking. Then you will be led to the realization of the truth of the God of peace being with you always. And, in the new covenant, the Spirit of the peace giving God is in you. It is why you can boldly declare the words of the apostle John, to say that, He that is in you is greater than He that is in the world ! In your life’s happenings, sometimes you may feel that God is somewhere far away and also silent. But, pursuing peace is all about focusing your attention on the Peace Giver and coming to the realization, that He never leaves you or forsakes you. The Lord is always with you.
He is with you even in the valley :
Life has its ups and downs; it is true in the life of everyone on earth, and being a child of God does not insulate you from it. But, ‘Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world’, is the Lord’s soothing and empowering reassurance, that can see you walk through the valleys of life victoriously ! When the Lord is your shepherd, indeed you lack nothing, for He brings provision and restoration in your life, as He leads you in paths of righteousness. It is what the psalmist describes in the first three verses of psalm twenty three, one that is familiar and loved by all. And, it is a truth that you and I can certainly attest to, having tasted His wondrous goodness and love at so many points in our lives.
But, in the very next verse, David then goes on to make his powerful statement of faith concerning God’s presence with him in the valleys of life, that come even while walking in paths of righteousness. They are the times in your life that can lead you to doubt whether you have drifted away from God, to walk in paths that are not ordained by Him. But it is not so; it is all part of the same song ! Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. [Psalms 23:4]
God’s word very forthrightly states how the righteous may have many troubles, but God will stand with them to deliver them. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles, is the testimony of the psalmist. [Psalms 34:19,17] Even Elijah, the prophet, after a powerful victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, very soon went through the valley of despair, fleeing from the wrath of one woman, Jezebel, to the extent of praying to God that he may die ! Do not be surprised therefore, when you encounter the experience of passing through a valley in your walk with God, as if something strange was happening to you. For, other children of God have trod the same path before you; and their testimony of the presence of the peace giving God through it all will give you the courage to face the valley that may seem dark and deep initially.
The valley, dark and deep ! :
The valley need not be a physical one; rather it is an experience in your life that can be described as dark, evil, and even death, which is separation and grief. Separation can be due to a bereavement that comes because of the death of a loved one, or it can be like what Joseph went through, being separated from his family, especially his father who loved him so. Darkness can be the ignorance, the feeling of groping in the dark to switch on the light, to know where things are, as you unlock and enter your own home after sundown, a familiar place, but which is now enveloped in darkness. And sometimes ignorance is when you are unable to know why certain painful things have taken place, even though you want to know the reason or the cause of it all. Darkness, in this context, is not failure to understand, but being unable to see why, though you most certainly want to figure things out.
The valley that is ‘evil’ :
Evil is very obviously present in the world which lies under the sway of the evil one. And, it is the Bible that gives you the reason for the prevalence of evil, and also shows you the way to come out of it, and stay free from it. For, the laws of the world cannot subdue evil, but in Christ you have the empowering to say, ‘Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world’. The evil that can affect a person’s life is affliction, which is the antagonism of people, and the pressure of circumstances. Arrogant people, arrogant because of their position or power, can display an ugly arrogance in their dealings with people, causing much pain and harm.
They are the people who want to mow you down, and subject you to do what you do not want to do, only to make you groan under the pain that they inflict upon you. Affliction that is evil is also the pressure of circumstances that causes stress in you. It is when you lose your ease to become vulnerable to disease. Lord Jesus, the peace giving God, invites you therefore, to come to Him, and find rest, as you take up His yoke, walk alongside Him and learn from Him. And in your pressurizing circumstance, He knows what you do not know, and He can do what you cannot do, to relieve you. He eases your stress, to give you peace and rest, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light !
The onslaught of the enemy :
When you think of the evil that is coming against you, you may attribute it all to a person. You may put a human face to it, and then be misled to think that you can deal with that person and overcome your problem. But, the sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians gives the true picture of what is taking place behind the scenes of life. Your struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
It is the devil that is at work to bring evil into your life through a person; and the sad part is, that person himself may not be aware that he is an instrument in the hands of the devil. But, it also remains that, to deal with the devil you need God on your side. You cannot do it on your own; and if God is on your side, who can be against you ?! That is the realization that needs to be in you, as you go through the valley of evil affliction and darkness that can seem so threatening and powerful. The Lord is with you; and therefore you need not fear any evil.
Forget not His benefits ! :
The word valley begins with the letter ‘V’ ; and the alphabet itself gives a very apt picture of what a valley is ! It is a very low point in your life that you may need to face; one that makes the blessings that God has showered on you in the past seem very far away, as the immediate felt need looms menacingly in front of you. And, you are not alone; for the seventy seventh and the seventy third psalms, describe how it can happen in others too. But, the truth is that, the very fact that you are alive today is all by the grace of God. Your very existence today is the proof of the grace of God upon your life And, if you only convert all that the Lord has invested on you thus far in your life, His provision and care and so much more, into monetary terms, the amount would be truly staggeringly high !
Also, it is walking through a valley that God’s word talks about, for in Him and with Him, there is a future and a hope. You will surely come out of it ! And yet, in your human frailty, you can end up questioning the care and love of God ! For, going through a valley is a very painful and difficult season in any person’s life, when the past blessings seem very far away, the present is very frustrating and the future is very fearful. Studying the word of God though, and in it the lives of God’s people who went through valleys to come out of them and grow from strength to strength, will enlighten the darkness of your valley, to lead you through it, and out of it, to shine forth as gold !
It could be a deadline staring at you in the face, demanding an action from you, which you find that you are not capable of. King Hezekiah found himself in such a valley, as enemies came against him. And this was his message to Isaiah, for it was the prophets who heard from God in the Old Testament times; ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them’. [2 kings 19:3] The enemies were spreading a lot of false rumors about him, much like the ‘fake news’, that seems to be trending today !
And, when lies are being said about you, it is a sure sign that the devil is at work ! As he was surrounded by vicious enemies, it was a do or die situation for Hezekiah; one that he describes very aptly in the verse above. It could very rightly describe your situation, your dead line too; but you have good news, for when you are in Christ, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you !
To king Jehoshaphat, as many kings came marching against him, it was the valley of darkness, the ignorance of not knowing how to face the enemy. But, he prayed a very honest prayer, in public, in the midst of all his people, humbly admitting his ignorance, and his dependency on the Lord. ‘O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power against this great army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you’. [2 Chronicles 20:12] God knows it all, even before you come to Him in prayer. There is absolutely no need therefore, to try and impress Him, or try to wriggle out of your wrongdoings by giving lame excuses, in your prayer.
You come to Him, ‘just as you are’, and you pray so that you can understand your situation better, and not because He does not know what is happening in your life, and the worries and fears that may be plaguing your mind because of it. Be honest also, in what you ask of God, even as Paul prayed about the thorn in his flesh. God answered him then, by giving him His all sufficient grace and strength to withstand and overcome. But, often you will find that it is much easier to just adjust, and get along with your problem instead of getting rid of it permanently, which involves being honest in the acknowledgement of your situation.
Though all said and done, you can never hide from God, or hide anything from God; trying to hide, is what intellect does to you ! And, when you try to run away from God, you will only end up running into God. It is the truth of Jonah’s story ! Therefore, prayer is where you need to open your heart in honest humility and sincerity, to receive God’s gracious power that is available to you. And, you will see that your valley is no longer a valley of darkness and separation, for you will experience His presence with you, even in the valley, to take you through it and reach the other side safely.
It was the epitome of darkness in the Lord’s life, when the brightest part of the day, became darkness as He hung on the Cross, carrying the sins of the world, that led to being separated from His Father; what it must have cost Him, you and I can never ever imagine ! It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. [Luke 23:44,45]
How can this be applied to the darkness of the valley ?
Noon is the time of the day, when it should have been bright and clear, the brightest, in fact. And, it can symbolize the prime season of your life, the time that you need to optimize, seeing brightly and clearly in order to fulfill your life’s responsibilities and divine destiny. But, at that very point in your life, when things should have been optimal, when you find that everything is gloomy and dark around you, a valley of darkness and evil affliction, self pity and a sense of discouragement can try to creep in. Be assured therefore, that the darkness at noon is not the end of the story, for the Lord is with you, and darkness is light before Him ! And, like David, you too can say that, even in the darkness of the valley, you do not fear any evil, for the Lord is with you.
You may not know, but He knows it all !
Job, a man commended as righteous by God, went through unimaginable pain and loss on a single day, to enter a very dark valley of ignorance and pain in his life. And through it all what he found to be the most painful was the silence of God. His friends who came to comfort him only led him into a deeper valley of despair, where he even began to curse the day that he was born ! Job’s comforters, the idiom that has come out of it therefore, has come to define people who come to comfort, but end up doing the very opposite ! If you cannot comfort, it is better to remain silent, is the lesson to be learnt out of it !
The book of Job has come to be associated with suffering, but it is also a book of faith. As Job navigates through all his confusion trying to get a glimpse of God in the midst of it all, these are his words; But if I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the west I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I do not catch a glimpse of Him. [Job 23:9] But, he then comes to a marvelous conclusion, to put his faith in the all knowing God, saying, But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. [Job 23:10] Job declares that he is not able to get his mind to understand or grasp the essence of why his world has become totally empty and painful so suddenly. But, it is then that he goes on to proclaim in faith, ‘I do not know, but I know that God knows; and it is in that knowledge that I find my rest’. It is the knowledge of the truth that will set you free too.
For, on this side of heaven, you may not understand why some things have happened, and when you are in heaven, you will no longer need to understand ! The key therefore, when you are passing through a dark valley, lies in knowing that He knows it all. It is what the apostle Paul, very emphatically states in his epistles: I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day. [2 Timothy 1:12] For we know, that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. [Romans 8:28] You may not know it all. But when you know that God knows it all, and that He is a good God, who does what is good in your life, you will come to a place of rest. It is how it all builds up to a majestic climax in the life of Job.
‘I know that my Redeemer lives’:
Job came to the realization of the truth that his Redeemer lives, and will certainly intervene in his situation to bring him out of the valley of pain and loss. And, his final proclamation therefore was: I know you can do all things O Lord, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted. [Job 42:2] It was the experience of David too, as it led him to declare, ‘I know my Redeemer is with me, and therefore I will not fear any evil’.
In the darkness, trusting and relying on God :
David was not the only one who walked in obedience to God’s ways, and still was faced with the valley of the shadow of death. The prophet Isaiah describes the procedure that any obedient child of God needs to follow when the path is deep and dark. It is simply to trust and depend on the guidance of God, knowing that He knows it all. ‘Who among you fears the Lord, and obeys the word of His Servant ? Let him who walks in the dark and has no light, trust in the Name of the Lord, and rely on his God’. [Isaiah 50:10] Trust in God, and rely on Him. And, the proof of trusting in God is when you are resting in God. A simple example of this is, as you lie down to sleep at night, you are throwing your entire weight on the cot, trusting that it can bear the load ! And, it is then that you experience your rest !
To rely on God, is to hold on to Him; but, in the darkness of the valley, how do you find Him to hold on to Him? The answer to it is that, you do not have to search and find Him, for He is there with you, and there is no darkness too deep for Him. Your situation also, to you may seem extremely difficult in order to come out of it. But, nothing is too difficult for the Lord, and He is with you and will surely bring you out. And, every time you read His word, He will speak to you, so that you may trust and come to a place of rest in Him, in the midst of your situation. He will enable you to regain your strength. It is the promise of God that is yes and amen in Christ Jesus.
When your heart is set on pilgrimage :
When your life’s journey in your eyes is a precious pilgrimage, as you walk with God towards His courts above, you may face valleys. But, He will be with you even in the valley, giving you all the strength that you need. He Himself is your strength. In your time of weakness, He is your strong point. And, as you cry out, ‘Lord, save me from my own self !’ He will intervene, and His strength will be made perfect in your weakness. You have a powerful God, a strong God, who will be your strength when your heart is set on walking with Him, in walking through the valley, and not running away from it. It may be a valley of weeping, but you will come through to the other side !
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage; As they pass through the valley of Baca [weeping], they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. [Psalms 84:6,7] You thought you would fall, unable to rise up again in the dark valley; but, you are going to stand, and stand upright as a testimony of the glory of God, bringing honor to the King of Kings ! You are not going to run back, because it will not solve your problem. Do not ponder on ways to avoid the hindrance, because it is not an option for you !
Keep your eyes fixed on the destiny that God has for you. There is only one way of overcoming the problem; and, it is to go through it and come out victorious. ‘Go in the strength you have’, the Lord said to Gideon, but He did not stop with that, for together with it, ‘I will be with you’, was His assurance. Such is the God whom you worship; the God who never leaves you or forsakes you ! In the valley, He is with you; and therefore, you will come through to the other side. It is an all encompassing promise to every child of God; ‘they go from strength to strength till every one of them appears before God in Zion’!
The comfort and strength of God :
‘Your rod and your staff comfort me’, declares David, when the need for going through a valley arises in his life. The comfort of God involves consolation regarding painful happenings in your past, strength for the present, and encouragement for your future. It is how He becomes the God of all comfort in your life. ‘I will never leave you comfortless’, said the Lord to His disciples, and promised to send them the Comforter, who would be with them always to give consolation and encouragement, whether it was on the mountain top or in the valley.
‘You have a long way to go’ :
The prophet Elijah was elated on the mountain top one day, as he stood up for the Lord, to defeat the prophets of Baal. But the very next day found him in discouragement and fear, running away and wanting to die. And, the angel came to give him food and water, bidding him to sleep. Then the next time, it was the Angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ Himself, who offered him bread and water, and bade him to rest once again, for he still had a long way to go. [1 kings Chapter 18 & 19] Even in your life, may be you are at the end of your rope, wanting to quit, but the Lord is saying, ‘You have a long way to go’! Elijah wanted to die, but ended up never seeing death, for he was transported to heaven in chariots of fire ! It is the glorious destiny that God has for you too. The very place where you feel defeated and put down, will be the very place where you are lifted up by Him, for the glory and honor of His Name !
The CROSS – the place of rest :
Elijah, lifted up from his discouragement, walked to reach the mountain. It was where Abraham was tested by the Lord, where Solomon later on built the Temple of God, and was ultimately the place of the Cross, where the Lord laid down His life, that you and I may live ! Abraham, on that momentous day, pointed prophetically to the Cross, as he called it the place ‘where everything would be taken care of’. And today, post crucifixion, you and I can say, ‘everything has been taken care of on the Cross of Calvary’. It is the place of rest ! You may be walking through a valley now, but God is with you; His rod and staff comforts you.
You will come through to realize and praise the God who is always with you, through it all, through all the ups and downs of life, the sad and happy times, even as you have learned in the process to trust and find your rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. The valley is designed to give you fear, but do not fear, for the One who has overcome fear is in you now. You will come out on the other side, shining as gold. Remember that you are a child of God; difficulties may have come now, but you will say like Job, ‘I know that He knows; and when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold’! He is walking with you now, to bring you to the other side, for whatever He begins He will carry on to completion.
Put your trust in Him and rely on Him, for you have a faithful and powerful God. He will never let the righteous be forsaken, or their children begging for bread. Let Him be the Shepherd of your soul, as you give Him full control; and even in the valley dark and deep, He will be your guide to carry you safely through, to place your feet on solid rock, and give a new song in your mouth. Give thanks unto God, for all His goodness and faithfulness, and the promise of His loving presence with you, until the end of the age !
In the Name of Christ Jesus Amen.
