As a youth, I experienced spikes in spiritual zeal after retreats, mission trips and concerts. Then I’d fizzle out like a flat Coke a week or few later. My peers and I came to expect this of each other. To us, life was a series of spiritual highs and lows, “mountain tops and valleys” we called them. Cliches have dubbed it life’s winding path, flowing river, summer and winter tree, etc. For years, I accepted this course as a fact of life in which I would predictably continue. But it’s it?
No. And Yes. The cliches are not wholly wrong. God sends us into valleys both spiritual and circumstantial for our growth, hence Psalm 23. He brings us also to mountaintops of victory and revelation. The cliches are just wrong in about half the contexts that many Christians try to apply them. We mistaken many of our downward slopes to be God-sent, but most are self-induced. We draw near to God then we fall away; we confess and repent then live like we didn’t; we step out in bold faith then we shrink back in fear; we are given vision then we get busy with our own pursuits. Naturally, focusing on ourselves causes us to forget God. That is, until we are reminded of Him again and the cycle continues.
If we fix unstraying eyes on God, then even in sorrow and confusion we can still experience His presence. God is constant and He invites us to live constantly in His presence. The creator did not intend for our nearness to himself to ebb so; he intended entire lifetimes to be spent in his presence enamored by Christ, empowered by his Spirit and comforted by his fatherly love. God gives us His whole self freely. Therefore we ought not attribute too many dry seasons to God rather than to our own lack of devotion.
Our spiritual altitude depends far more on our own investment than it does on God’s liberality. Genuine valleys are God-sent and God-purposed, not self-imposed.
As discovered this truth, God shifted my expectations for our relationship which in turn overhauled my actions. I spent more time with Him and fell deeper in love with His Word. He grew my roots down into His love like a summertime tree by a stream and my faith became stronger. When my faith became stronger, I relied on him more. When I relied on him more, I experienced him so often broadly deeply that I no longer expected a valley to follow the high ridge along which I walked. Even when a genuine valley came, God kept me in His presence.
Now I can better understand David’s famous metaphor of the ever-fruitful tree in Psalm 1 and the prophet Jeremiah’s extension of that metaphor in Jeremiah 17:8,
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.
A tree in the middle of the field depends on circumstantial “rain” for survival. “Weather” dictates when it perks up or turns brittle. On the other hand, a tree on the riverbank sends its roots to the unending supply of living water and does not thirst even in drought. David and Jeremiah acknowledge that droughts come, heat happens and seasons change. But they also proclaim that no matter how long the scarcity or how severe the storm, the one who trusts in the Lord will not wilt. Nope. She will be like an ever-blooming tree, deep-rooted in her constant God and flourishing even in hard circumstances. Likewise, David acknowledges in Psalm 23 that trials like shadowy valleys will come,
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
But no matter how deep the slope or how narrow the gorge, the one who seeks the Lord will not be left alone.
God permits “valleys” and “droughts” in our lives- but he intends them to draw us nearer to himself not farther away. According to scripture, it is possible to live our whole lives in communion with God, basking in his light, drinking continually from His fount of living water, growing in understanding and fruitfulness, depending on Him in our valleys, and experiencing overriding peace, abounding joy, abiding faith and life abundant.
RELATED POSTS:
