God of the Valley

God of the Valley
The “valley.” It can be described as a wilderness, trial, testing, transition, grieving a loss. If you’ve been following Jesus for any length of time, you can attest to God encounters in the valley, and you have surely found Him to be faithful at all times, right?
Undoubtedly we are called to a glorious journey with Jesus. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18
Self-awareness is one of the most accurate reflections of God-awareness. In other words, going deeper in knowing God will always entail going deeper in knowing oneself.
Traversing the In-Between
Our entire Christian journey is a pilgrimage; all of life is “in-between”, living in this present age while eagerly anticipating the age to come. Yet there is the current narrative of our lives, my story and yours, which our beloved Author is writing. Successful transition is connecting the dots and being willing to do the hard work of the middle.
Becoming Holy
The God of the Valley has a transportation system in the wilderness which He’s been implementing for years.
Waters shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert… a highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness…the redeemed shall walk there…they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Is. 35:8
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 1 Cor. 10:5
Perhaps the Bible character best known for enduring hardship is the man Job. He had great favor and joy in his life at the beginning of his story and in the final chapters. In-between was an adventure, an extremely challenging one; the hard work of the middle.
I believe that one of Job’s friends had some great insight. The Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you. Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. Job 22:25-26
The God of the Valley not only transforms and purifies us as gold, but He IS our gold.
Fire is always the best test to establish value and worth.
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 1 Pet. 1:6-7
Much praise, glory, and honor, will be my portion when I see my Lord face to face. Because when life called for endurance, I endured.
They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 1 Cor. 10:3-6
The God of the Valley is the God of the cross.
Jesus knows wilderness and He knows thirst. Jn. 19:28
Jesus knows YOUR thirst.
James 1:22-25
Only listening to God’s Word and not making application = self deception. Symptom: lack of self-awareness. Who am I? I forgot. Denial. Living behind walls.
How do we “do” the Word. LOOK INTENTLY.
Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 1:26
Self-awareness: monitor your speech. Audible words, and…I include self talk. For me, this includes the voices of my past, the archive of words spoken to me that shaped my life and became my belief system about myself.
Here’s the concept: All speech is answering speech. We were all spoken to before we spoke.
Quote from Eugene Peterson: “Prayer will be learned properly as human answering speech to the addressing speech of God.”
Think about it: How much more accurate are my prayers when I am HEARING the voice and promptings of the Holy Spirit.
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