“Some valleys are God sent me here valleys.”

A thought by Larry Osborne, (2009-04-04) from his book, Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe (p. 143). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. . (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book

The myth that Larry is dealing with in this section is the belief of some good people “that God only leads us to the mountaintop and that long-term valleys always mean a wrong turn.” He goes on to say, “The problem with assuming that every deep and extended valley must mean a wrong turn is that it ignores so much biblical evidence to the contrary. Sometimes a valley does mean a wrong turn, but just as often (if not more often) it means something altogether different.”

He then says, “Some valleys are God sent me here valleys. Their distinguishing trait is obedience that appears to have backfired. Whenever doing the right thing is what puts us into a valley or keeps us there, it's a good bet that we're right where God wants us to be, even though we'd almost always rather be somewhere else.”

Maybe that is where you are today. Larry says, “There is one thing we can know for sure when obeying God puts us in deep weeds: we're right where he wants us to be, even if we aren't where we want to be. That may not make the valley any less scary or wearisome, but it does provide a source of spiritual comfort and perspective.”

Now he does say, “Let's admit it: it's pretty hard to imagine any scenario in which an all-knowing and all-loving God would want us to endure a lengthy season of frustration and disappointment. That's why, when we find ourselves (or those we love) mired in an extended painful valley, we tend to immediately start looking for the quickest way out. We assume something must have gone terribly wrong.”

But that is not necessarily so. If you knew at one point that this is what God wanted you to do, then don’t run, stay with it. Now there are other types of valleys but the God sent me here valley is one you must not run from.

So how are you doing?

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