The Lord is near!
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. (Psalm 145:18-21 KJV)
It seems like the valleys we have in life are always leading to something greater. Preparing us for what is on top of the next mountain. The mountain tops of life are always amazing. But they seem to mean so much more when the valley was rough and the climb up took all you had. We would never be thankful for the view without the work to get there. I don't know about you, but my valleys are only survived by letting God carry my packs. The longer I try to worry, and fix, and cut down all the weeds and ignore the offered hand, the longer it takes for me to get out! But God didn't send me through the valley to see how hard I would struggle on my own. He sent me to see how big my faith will grow. Verse 18 says "the Lord is nigh unto ALL them that call upon him." All He asks us to do is call on Him and He is there. "To all that call upon him in truth" or "faithfully". It seems to me that, while we all know God knows everything that we are going through, even before it happens, He still wants us to tell him. Cry out to him and "he will also hear their cry, and will save them." I think that some of the trials, or valleys as I like to call them, are not given to us to see how well "WE" can get through it. I believe God gives them to us to teach us that leaning on him, crying out to him, and finally giving it to Him, was all he expected from us. If we try to do it on our own, where would our praises come from when we made it through? Where would our faith grow? What if we didn't "make it through" the way we thought?
Since becoming a mother I understand more and more the way God loves His children. It amazes me that as much as my girls mean to me and are my heart, how very much more God loves me! He loves me enough to let me fall down so I can reach up to Him to help me back up. He loves me enough to let me make the wrong choices, even though He has told me the right ones, so that I can learn to trust Him more. He loves me enough to say "Well done!" even when I didn't do it perfectly. God wants us to share with him our hurts, our failures, our victories, the broken hearts. He wants us to tell him about our day, whether good or bad. He wants a relationship with us. When my kids cry out to me, I reach out to them. I sometimes can't help if they don't use their words to tell me what they need. Even when they are babies we mothers learn their cries. The one that means they are hungry. The one that means they are tired. The one that means they are dirty. And when they just need to cry because, well they just need to cry! God wants us to use our words, and he knows our cries.
God doesn't want us to just assume he knows what is going on and expect him to fix it. He DOES know what is going on. He knows even before we are born all the trials that we will face, and the mountains we will climb, and the view we will get to see at the top of each one. But how we handle the trials, and how we react to the climb, is our own choice. Will I call on Him, tell Him my heart, grow my relationship, and let Him draw nigh? Will I try to figure it out on my own?
I challenge you (and myself) to see the valleys for what we are to learn through them, and not how quickly we can escape. And when we make it to the top of another mountain we can say, "My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless His holy name for ever and ever."
