God of My Valley (Hard Questions, Part 1)

There are times when we endure a season of suffering and, through it all, enjoy a heightened sense of God's presence.  But what about those times when it feels like God has dumped you in the middle of something hard and left you on your own to figure it out?  Where is God then?

Over the years I've asked this question a lot.  Some questions have no answers outside Heaven, but along the way, God has taught me two very important lessons.

The first lesson is illustrated in 1 Kings 20, when Ahab, the king of Israel, is warned by a prophet that the Arameans (some translations say "the Syrians") are gearing up for attack.  Ahab prepares the Israelites for battle and goes out to meet Aram, but an embarrassing sight awaits them.  The Arameans fill the country, while the Israelites in comparison look like two small flocks of goats (v. 27)!

The situation looks pretty grim, but Israel is about to find out that God has a beef with Aram.  "Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, 'Thus says the LORD, "Because the Arameans have said, 'The LORD is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys', therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD" ' " (v. 28).

At that time, pagan nations like Aram believed that gods had only so much power, and were confined to specific areas (like mountains and valleys).  According to notes written on 1 Kings 20:23 from the Ryrie Study Bible, the Arameans wanted to fight in the valley because they believed that Israel could only win if they fought battles on the hills, since Israel's God controlled the hills. 

There really is no need to finish the story, because God had set Himself in opposition to Aram, which means that no matter how many troops Aram brought against God, He would win.  What I want you to see is what offended God in the first place.  

He was offended by the accusation that He was only a God of the hills, and not also a God of the valleys.

If you know me well enough, you know that I hear that with a different perspective entirely!

Christians sometimes label stormy seasons as "valleys" and sunny, celebratory seasons as "mountaintops."  (I know I do!) If we take this point of view and apply it to Aram's accusation of God, it sounds like Aram is saying, "You're only in control, present, and gracious during the sunny times.  But when the stormy times come, You go M.I.A.!"

This is a lie, no matter how true it may sometimes feel.  God wants it made very clear that He is equally as present (sometimes even more so to our awareness) in the valley.  

"For the LORD your God has blessed you in all that you have done; He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness.  These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing." -Deuteronomy 2:7

"But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the LORD your God cares for.  The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year." -Deuteronomy 11:11-12 

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." -Psalms 23:4

God never, ever, ever lets go of your hand.  He has not left you, even though you feel alone.  David says that there is no way we can lose God or get away from Him (Psalms 139: 7-10).  He is most certainly a God of the valleys!  

But what about my original question?  If God is with us in the valley, then where is He?  

I'll address that in Part 2. :)

What Fountain are YOU Swimming in?

(Note from the author: Per a request, I may start changing the colors of these posts so they're easier to differentiate from each other!)

A few weeks ago, I was skimming through the book of Jeremiah and my eye caught a verse that made me feel uncomfortable.  (Isn't that great? haha -- my public speaking textbook calls that feeling "cognitive dissonance", which is a sense of mental discomfort that prompts people to change when new information conflicts with their previous thought patterns.  And there's your college-thought of the day.)

The verse was Jeremiah 2:13, which says, "For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Living Waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

Americans don't use the word "cistern" all too often (it's basically a well), but in Bible times a cistern was a hole dug in the ground that served as the holding tank for their water.  Now think outside the box, away from the literal terms, and see what God is trying to tell His people.

"For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Living Waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."

People make "cisterns" out of dreams, hopes, plans, people.  God is trying to tell us that only He can fulfill us -- and only He can fill us.  We are looking for fulfillment in the wrong place, in things and people who cannot possibly fill us or keep us filled. 

That sounds like me!  Maybe I haven't "forsaken" God, but I've been pulling off the song and dance of having both "cisterns" and not letting the "broken" cistern go.  I've been praying for God to fill the cracked cistern, but even if He does one day, it will be like a sieve, and no matter how much water is poured in, it will never keep it filled.  In the end I'd be splashing around in a kiddie pool with a few inches of water in it, when I could have been diving into a bottomless ocean of God's vast, fulfilling love.  Looks like I need a prayer adjustment!  Maybe you do too.

So what does this look like for you?  Have you been focusing on a cracked cistern and praying for God to fill it?  It may be a good, wonderful thing!!  But anything that is not Jesus Christ is a sieve; it won't hold water.  Not for long.  It can't.  It's cracked.  So even if God DOES choose to fill that cistern someday (and He might, and I hope He will!) our expectations must be realistic.  We can't expect those things to fill us.  They might, for a while.  But like a water bottle with a hole in it, it will slowly leak and the water level will fall.

We've all got God-sized holes in our hearts, and -- surprise! -- only God can fill that hole.  The only "water" that can fill you up is the Fountain of Living Waters.  I'd say the better bet is God's "cistern"! 

So what fountain are YOU swimming in?  The cracked kiddie pool with a few inches of water in it?  Or the bottomless ocean of God?