Hebrews 12:1-2 . . . Let us
also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run
with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder
and perfecter of our faith.
As a pastor, I spend more time
than the average person with people who are in the valley of the shadow of
death. My phone rings in the middle of the night and we go to help people in
their darkest place, and their hardest time, and their most difficult
circumstance.
Some people scoff at Christians
in this valley. They erroneously think that faith in God is a fantastic thing
until you go through your hardest thing. Then faith falls apart.
Where was God? Why did He allow
this? Why didn’t He do something? Isn’t that what Christians think, too? Wrong!
I’ve stood countless times beside believers who were going through their
darkest valley and let me tell you, never had their faith shone brighter. I’m
talking about intense faith in the Lord in their most desperate, devastating
valleys.
Perhaps you read this and
wonder, could I go through that myself? The answer of course is, no, you can’t
– but God will be there with you. He will help you. He will guide you through
that circumstance. You don’t have to fear or wonder or worry about your strength-God
will sustain you. Just ask any mature, faithful follower of God.
There’s something about seeing
the faithfulness of God through the seasons of life that drills your faith deep
down in your soul. You don’t question that God will show up-you know He will.
You don’t worry that His required course will end well-you know all about the
blessings of a long obedience in the same direction. You’ve seen Him work and
You trust Him over the long haul.
At the end of her life,
Henrietta Mears, the gifted Christian educator and mentor to Billy Graham and
Bill Bright, was asked the question, “If you had your life to live over again,
what would you have done differently?” Her response, “When things looked darkest,
I would have trusted God quicker.”
Walking in the Word. (www.walkintheword.com)
