Sister Tarpley’s Column: Looking backward

“O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.” Psalm 30:7.

It is often difficult to recognize the hand of God when we are in the midst of adversity. We often feel God has hidden His face from us. When the Lord takes us through deep valleys, there will be fruit from the deep valley that we cannot see. You must press into Him with all you have during this time.

God uses the deep valley to frame our lives to create a change in our nature, not just a change in habits. The depth and width of our valley is often an indicator of the level of calling and influence we will have on others in the future.

Our adversity is not just for us, but others who will be in our future path of influence. This is not very comforting when you are in the middle of the valley, but know this is a truth in the Kingdom.

It is often years later when we discover the wisdom of God and why He intentionally led us through the dark valley. Life is often lived forward, but understood backward.

It is not until we are down the road and we stand on the mountain looking back at our life through valley that we can appreciate the terrain God has allowed us to scale and the spiritual deposits He has made in our life while we were there.

It will help you if you ask God to help you to take one day at a time. Let His Word reminds you, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:34.

I give Him your worries and concerns. God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present, Almighty God and you can ask Him for His peace, grace, and wisdom in your valley.

“He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light.” Job 12:22.

When you begin to realize this, you sit back and breathe a sigh of relief because you know that God was in control all along. It didn’t seem like it at the time, but He was.

Do you find yourself in the valley at this time in your life? Now is the time to fully trust God to guide you to higher ground in your spiritual life.

Remember, it takes two mountains to make a valley; and I love to add this fact that I learned long ago; and it blesses me when God leads me through a valley, think about this fact, God will have blessed you at least twice before He leads you into a valley in order to help you grow spiritually.