“God can handle any question we dare to ask him.”

A thought by Craig Groeschel from his book, Hope in the Dark: Believing God Is Good When Life Is Not (p. 63). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

He is not like some fathers, some mothers, some bosses, and even some preachers.

Craig says, “He may not answer in an audible, booming voice. (Most likely, he won’t.) But he isn’t angry with us when we do ask. It’s not as if he’s going to storm out of the room when we throw a tantrum. He understands. Even as we’re pouring out our emotions, he wants to draw us closer to himself.  We have his permission to speak freely.

“Sometimes I think we’re afraid of expressing our questions not because we’re worried about God’s response but because we’re worried about our own. We’re afraid to say what we’re feeling, deep down in the dark corners of our souls. We’re terrified that if we admit how we’re truly feeling, then our faith will crack. But the opposite is true. It’s when we suppress the pain of what we’re experiencing, stuffing it down and denying it, that our faith becomes so hard and brittle that it breaks.”

He goes on, “Maybe this explains why, when some of us slip into the valley, we try to force our way back up to the mountaintop. We want that closeness we used to have with God. But denying that things are the way they are, refusing to believe the truth, is like trying to run up a sand dune.

“A woman who’s been downsized might say, ‘It’s okay that I lost my job. I know that God can provide a better job. So I’ll just sit here and wait for it to come to me.’ Or a man might refuse to believe his doctor’s diagnosis. ‘Nope. Not me. I’m just going to pray and trust that God will heal me. I don’t need to seek any kind of treatment.’”

Craig then says, “Don’t misunderstand: I’m not discounting that God can (and does) provide jobs out of the blue and heal people miraculously. But when we retreat and refuse to feel the pain of our disappointment, then we’re not really trusting him. We’re using him. And maybe missing greater opportunities for growth. Peaks are nice, but you don’t see many farms on mountaintops. Why? Because things grow better in valleys. Your time in the valley may not be pleasant, but it’s in the valleys of life that you grow closer to God and stronger in your faith.”

So, are you growing closer to God in your valley?

Yes, yes!