Word Count: 1303

Contact Duane Huffstutler

A Walk thru the Valley

by Duane Huffstutler  
4/08/2012 / Christian Living

Isaiah 40:4-5 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (KJV)

A valley is an elongated depression between uplands, hills, or mountains, often following the course of a stream. Each of you have seen a valley or been in a valley at one time or another. Sometimes the valley is made up of hills that are not much more than a slight rise in the terrain and other times it is made up of true mountains that are taller than the trees can grow. As you go up the mountain you reach a point that they call timberline which is the altitude that the trees will not grow any higher up the mountain. If you take a tree higher up the mountain and plant it, the tree will die because there is a lack of oxygen and nutrients to sustain life. The trees that grow on the timberline will only grow so tall some never get over 6 feet tall. So what does this geography lesson have to do with church and our walk with Christ? I will answer that.
When we are saved we are transported to the top of the mountain and there is nothing there to interfere with our talking with God. And we have a great time and feel so very good God is always there to help us with our every need and even some of our desires. But as we keep walking we come to the point that we start down the mountain at which time things start getting in the way of our communication with God. It may be our job or our to do list at home. It may be our friends and our social life. Whatever it is we start getting farther and farther away from God and the great feeling starts to be not so great. The thing that we must remember is that God said that he would never leave you nor forsake you, so he is still there we just get something in between every once in a while and it gets hard to hear God speaking. But like a baby growing up we must walk down the hill in order to grow in the spirit. As we go down the hill we find obstacles that we must learn to overcome, without these experiences we would never grow out of the stage of being a baby spiritually. You see while we are on the mountain top we cannot grow we are like the trees at timberline we can only grow so tall then we stop growing. So in order to keep growing we must descend sown the mountain toward the valley. The farther we go down the mountain the more we will run into or be tried with forcing us to grow beyond what we are now. On this trip we may encounter sickness, death, anger, depression, and there are so many more that I will probably forget some. But in each of these there is something inside of you that is going to react in a particular manner. When we react according to God's word then we grow but when we don't react according to God's word then God reveals what it is inside of us that made us react in that manner. God does not get mad at us over our reaction he just wants us to learn that we are to depend on him in every situation. Then he wants us to ask him to help us to get that part of us out and replace it with his word and his Holy Spirit. If we learn to trust in him all is well, but when we forget about God and try to handle it on our own times are going to get tough. All God wants is for those that call him our Father to trust him and he will do whatever it takes to get that to happen, even if it takes something really tough. The deeper in the valley we go the harder the challenges will get. There are some people that God does not make go all the way to the very bottom of the valley and other people that are required to find the very bottom. What is at the bottom of the valley? I can't answer this for every one because the bottom of the valley is different for different people. For some it is the loss of a parent or spouse. For others it will be the loss of a child either by kidnapping or death. For still others it is sickness. For me, I have buried a parent and a wife. I have been severely burned all of which were very bad and I don't wish any of these on any one but the lowest point I have been to in my valley is the road to suicide. I have been down this road several times and the only thing that kept me from completing the task was the Lord speaking to me that no matter how bad you think the situation is here you have seen nothing yet and if you go through with this it is only the beginning not the end.
Why did I say all of this? The valley is the place that we all try to avoid. There is nothing pretty in the valley and it is filled with pot holes and hard times. But if you forget everything that I have said remember this one thingno matter how hard the valley is it is the only place that you can grow. When you go through the hard times and successfully get through each obstacle you will learn something and in the learning you will grow to a higher level in Jesus Christ. When you fall in a pot hole and ask the Lord to help you get out you grow in the Lord by building you faith in him. But when you stay on the mountain top you will never learn to trust God and you will never go through a hard time thus you will never grow. So a glorious as the mountain top is and as much as we love to stay there all of the time we can't because like the tree planted at the timberline you will only grow so tall and then you will quit growing and possibly die. But on the other hand if you stay in the valley all of the time you will get the water from the river flowing in the valley but you will not get the sunshine so you will grow and fight for survival but you will also only grow so much then there is a possibility that you will die. There must be a balance between the valley and the mountain top. God has developed the balance if we will trust him in all things and follow his leading. We will spend enough time on the top of the mountain to get the sunshine that we need and we will spend enough time in the valley to get the nutrients that we need to grow in the Lord. God knows and designed our walk with him so that we will grow in the valley. Will you trust him and follow him into the valley and praise him in the valley? Paul said that he had learned that in whatsoever place he is in he learned to be content. We must also get to that point in which we are content where ever the Lord leads us.

Duane L. Huffstutler, Written 2011, Faithwriters.com
Duane L. Huffstutler is the Sunday School Director at Oak Grove Pentecostal Ministries in Bonifay Florida. All scripture is from the King James Version (1611)

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be! Click here and TRUST JESUS NOW

Read more articles by Duane Huffstutler

Like reading Christian Articles? Check out some more options. Read articles in Main Site Articles, Most Read Articles or our highly acclaimed Challenge Articles. Read Great New Release Christian Books for FREE in our Free Reads for Reviews Program. Or enter a keyword for a topic in the search box to search our articles.

Enter comments below. Due to spam, all hyperlinks posted in the comments are now immediately disabled by our system.

Please type the following word below:

Not readable? Change text.

The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

Hire a Christian Writer, Christian Writer Wanted, Christian Writer Needed, Christian Content Needed, Find a Christian Editor, Hire a Christian Editor, Christian Editor, Find a Christian Writer