The Glory of The Valleys

August 23

"But I will sing of your power;
yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning,
for you have been my defense
and refuge in the day of my trouble.
To you, O my Strength, I will sing praises,
for God is my defense, my God of mercy."
Psalm 59:16-17

I think back to the times of greatest growth in my life, and those were consistently the darkest times of my life. Those are the times when we experience the Lord in ways more personal and more deeply than at any other times in life.

It's wonderful to be on the glorious mountain tops, but our experience of God is the most personal in the dark valleys. There we learn who he really is and there his love for us is most personally revealed.

God allows the hard times in life to mature us. Unfortunately, when all is well we relax and the Lord is not foremost in our sight. It takes the pain of the dark times to bring us to attention and to draw us to realize the importance of getting our priorities right; then we exchange what we thought were the glorious mountain tops for the realities of the glorious valleys which bring us to the maturity the Lord desires to see in us.