Through The Valley…
Have you ever heard the team “fair weather friend”? It refers to someone that is a good friend when things are convenient for them, or when things are going well…but when tough times arrive, they are nowhere to be found. At times, this is exactly like our relationship with God. Please understand, I do not mean that God is not present to us when there are difficult times, on the contrary, I mean that we are not present to God when things don’t go our way. Sure, at first we are present and praying 10 times a day to get something we want. But after a while we start to drift and get angry with God, wondering if He is listening to our prayers or not.
Doesn’t that make us a fair weather friend to God? It sounds like it to me. If we are only there to speak to God when things are going well, or when things start to go wrong in our eyes, then how can we be a true friend to God?
Psalm 23 says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me”. THROUGH the valley. We may not be able to see the end of the valley, but God does. He knows that we are not going to be left in the valley of death, instead He has a plan for us when, not if…but when, we come out of the other end of the valley. He has something better lined up for us than to dwell in the valley of death. In fact, later in Psalm 23 we hear, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever”. That is what God has in mind for us. Goodness and mercy during our lives, and living with Him forever once we arrive in Heaven.
So when things seem like they could not possibly get any harder, remember that we are walking THROUGH the valley, not TO the valley. God always has something better in store for us. Take comfort in knowing that God is there at all times to protect us and keep us safely guided to a better place in our lives.
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