In The Valley

How many times do we feel down in the dumps and think, “Well, I am in the valley.” I have even heard people say, “You can’t always live on the mountain top.” Just like I think we look at mountaintops through rose colored glasses, I think valleys get a bad rap. If we equate our high moments with mountain tops, our low moments get associated with the valleys. Actual physical valleys are beautiful. Many have a river or body of water. The soil is fertile and the vegetation lush. Just the same we need to look at our spiritual valleys through God’s unique perspective.

​As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted, [and] as cedar trees beside the waters. - Numbers 24:6 KJV

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I know I have the habit of putting God in a box. My human nature sees a problem and I decide how God can best fix the issue. I then expect God to act in the way I see as best and sometimes I even have the audacity to get upset when He doesn’t do it like I think it should be done. You would think by now I would have learned. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us that God’s ways are not our ways. He operates on a level of thinking that we can’t reach. God doesn’t just see the past and present, but He dwells in the future. We regulate God to the mountains and hills. We forget that He redeems our valleys.

 And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods [are] gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. ...  And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD [is] God of the hills, but he [is] not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.  And they pitched one over against the other seven days. And [so] it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined: and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day. - 1 Kings 20:23, 28-29 KJV

The Syrian king thought he had God figured out. The Isrealites must have won the previous battles because they were fought on the hills. Certainly, God could only work for His people in high places and couldn’t work in the valley. We fall into the same trap as the Syrian army. We think God couldn’t possibly give us victory in the valley. Our low places are too low for God to work. We feel lonely in our low places so we must be alone. God is standing there with us though and telling us that He is going to give us the victory. He desires to breathe life back into our valley.

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which [was] full of bones,  And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, [there were] very many in the open valley; and, lo, [they were] very dry.  And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.  Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.  Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:  And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.  So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.  And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but [there was] no breath in them.  Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. - Ezekiel 37:1-10 KJV

We can feel like those dry bones. Our spirits can be dry. We have fought the battle. Maybe we feel like we lost the battle. We may feel like there is nothing left to give because we have been picked clean. God is asking us, do you believe you can live again? It may take all we have to just say, God thou knowest. In verse five God speaks, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. God will put our pieces back together. He will restore the ravages that the battle has wrought on us. The winds of refreshing will come and breathe upon us and restore.

One thing with mountains is you have to exercise to hike up them. In a valley, there is no hiking. You aren’t putting your muscles and lungs to the test. We can mistake that for not doing anything or being unproductive when God actually wants to give us rest in the valley.

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The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. - Psalm 23:1-6 KJV

​This psalm paints such a beautiful picture that we forget it takes place in a valley. Green pastures don’t happen in the mountains. Rivers are not still on a mountain. This is where God chooses to restore our souls. This is where He can comfort us and feed us. This is where we can commune with Him.

I know I have felt the frustration of doing nothing. The struggle of being in a place where I couldn’t do what I knew was needed. We live in such a busy world and busyness has been glorified. We must be accomplishing so much if we are busy. We can find ourselves busy just for the sake of being busy. We can fall into the trap of wearing our busyness as a badge of honor. So then when we are forced to stop, we can subject ourselves to a false sense of worthlessness and failure. God could be simply wanting us to rest.  

A few years ago my word for the year was rest. It really puzzled me. I didn’t think I was too busy, but please don’t ask my husband and mother if they thought I was too busy. They may have a different answer. I struggled with this word and how God wanted to use it in my life. I realized I was thinking about rest wrong. I always thought of rest as unproductive, but restoration comes through rest. 

"All rest is not created equal. Much of what we consider rest fails to work because it is not restful. Shifting our activities or changing the location of where we are active is no more restful than doing those same activities at home. The most effective rest occurs when we are purposefully reviving the parts of our life we regularly deplete. Any so-called rest that does not meet this goal isn’t rest; it’s just more work adding to the busyness." from Sacred Rest by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith.

Maybe God has placed you in a valley to rest. Mountaintops are draining and exhausting. We get so focused on living mountaintop to mountaintop that we forget about the needed rest in the valley. I find it interesting that in Genesis, God says the evening and the morning  were the first day. Even Jews culture has feasts and sabbaths starting in the evening. In our modern culture we think of our day starting in the morning. Could God have wanted us to “start” our day with rest instead of falling into rest at the end of our day?
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Don’t despise your valleys. He is God of the valleys just like He is the God of the hills. He breathes life and restoration in the valley. We can rest in Him in the valley.

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