Have You Faced Your Dark Valley?
At some point, we will all go through the ‘valley experience.’
If you really love God, it’s scheduled in your calendar. Not that He hates you, but you have an enemy who will stop at nothing to drag you down.
It’s experiences like these that we must all face, just like David did and hold on to God for dear life.
For you, your dark valley may take on various forms.
This is the point when you ask, “What is the dark valley experience?”
The Dark Valley Experience
This is the season in life when lots of things will stop making sense. Your prayers may seem unanswered. The Bible seems so distant.
Friends will walk away. People will deride you. You may probably lose your job and all sources of income. What seemed rosy turns into thorns.
It’s going to be tough and miserable.
Every man of God had his dark moment.
If it sounds laughable, yeah, it’s okay to laugh, I used to laugh too.
Until I read Psalms 23. Again. And again. It stopped me dead in my tracks.
The moment you gave your life to Christ, the devil ganged up his best ruff-necks and instigated a ‘search and destroy’ mission against you.
He used a variety of tactics, from subtle overtones to malicious full blooded attacks. And it won’t stop. It’s part of Christian life.
God knew that you would go through the dark valley. And in times like this, life will seem so dark and God will seem so far away.
What On Earth Do You Do?
There’s an ominous verse that reads,
“Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear.
So the first thing to do is KNOW that those life experiences will happen.
Accept it. Rephrase Psalms 23 to read “Yea, though I walk through Christian life challenges, I will fear not…”
Now that you have accepted it, don’t fear it. Why?
Because God knew that it was going to happen, and He has his rod and staff to protect you from the worst vices conceivable, as long as you fear not. You can draw encouragement from the fact that all God’s Generals had to go through the dark alley.
God’s Generals Went Through The Valley
Adam, in his moment of indecision, Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego, Paul, Peter, James… my, you have a mighty group to keep you company!
Jesus himself encountered his dark alley at the Garden of Gethsemene.
In fact, if you have been a Christian this long and you haven’t encountered any dark season like this, you better ask God why.
Not that you should desire to do so, but every man of God had his dark moment.
Those dark moments, I have discovered, are important. They are profound, scary, pensive and… yes dark.
These moments come to teach you to get your eye off of what you see and fix them on what you don’t see.
More importantly, it says that the devil finds you enough of a threat (through your love for God) that he wants to do everything to shake and destroy you.
Because if he doesn’t you will end up doing some mighty profound acts for God that will change your destiny, your family, your community and the world.
It’s in this state that we sometimes get into error. We plead with God to take it away.
Yet, all along, we are to train ourselves like a soldier for this moment.
Because without the tough conditioning of a soldier, you will quickly faint and lose your faith in God.
You will begin accusing Him of not having your best interests at heart. This is why our faith grows cold.
We don’t see past the dark alley.
Soldiers have to overcome the toughest of conditions, cold rainy nights, intense temperatures, unpredictable situations, while keeping their eyes fixed on the prize.
This is war we’re in, soldier.
So the next time you open your eyes and sense your life seems like a solitary bicycle propped up against a dark, cold wall, smile.
Christian Life Challenges Come To Make You Stronger
God counts you as His General -strong enough to fight through the storm, bold enough not to be perturbed by what the devil will throw at you, comfortable enough to declare that His rod and staff are enough to take you through the season, a necessary step before you can fully claim all God’s blessings for your life.
It won’t last forever, depending on how you react to it.
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