Today, I feel like a reluctant warrior.
I know the truths of God, His promises, and His power. But still I wait in the foxholes of life, praying, hoping, and trying to avoid being hit by one of the enemy’s bullets.
Yet I know this is not what God intended for His children at all. He came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly. He intended that we would charge the enemy’s camp with our swords drawn, full of confidence. Not in ourselves and our ability, but in the one who made us.
I wish I could tell you that living every day with Jesus means you are always on the mountaintop, but that simply is not true. There are times in our lives when Jesus beckons us to the valleys because He know that even there, in the darkest and deepest of shadows, there are increbile treasures that await us.
Lord Jesus, help us to embrace the valleys as freely as we embrace the mountaintops. We truly want to live everyday with you.
This poem was in reading for today from Streams in the Desert. It encouraged me and seemed to be straight from God to my heart. May it bless and encourage you today.
I have been through the valley of weeping,
The valley of sorrow and pain;
But the God of all comfort was with me,
At hand to uphold and sustain.
As the earth needs the clouds and sunshine,
Our souls need both sorrow and joy;
So He places us oft in the furnace,
The dross from the gold to destroy.
When He leads thro’ some valley of trouble,
His omnipotent hand we trace;
For the trials and sorrows He sends us,
Are part of His lessons in grace.
Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning,
Forgetting the Husbandman knows
That the deeper the cutting and paring,
The richer the cluster that grows.
Well He knows the affliction is needed;
He has a wise purpose in view,
And in the dark valley He whispers,
‘Hereafter thou’lt know what I do’
As we travel thro life’s shadow’d valley,
Fresh springs of His love ever rise;
And we learn that our sorrows and losses,
Are blessings just sent in disguise.
So we’ll follow wherever He leadeth,
Let the path be dreary or bright;
For we’ve proved that our God can give comfort;
Our God can give songs in the night.