Paula Maillet
September 12
Knowing God In The Valleys
“But I will sing of your power;
Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the
morning,
for you have been my defense
and refuge in the day of my trouble.
To you, O my Strength, I will sing praises,
for God is my defense,
my God of mercy.”
Psalm 59:16-17
I think back to the times of greatest growth
in my life, and those were consistently the
darkest times of my life. Those are the times
when we experience the Lord in ways more
personal and more deeply than at any other
times in life. Indeed he is as the psalmist
wrote, “a very present help in trouble.” Jesus
has promised us that he will NEVER leave us
or forsake us, therefore let us cling closely to
him in the dark days.
I look to the apostle Paul who sat in a dark
and dank dungeon, his back bloodied after
being severely whipped, yet the depth of the
faith he had – enabled him to rise above it:
“But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners
were listening to them. Suddenly there was a
great earthquake, so that the foundations of
the prison were shaken;” Acts 16:25-26
For years I’ve wondered on that Scripture,
trying to understand how this man could be
singing praises to God in the pain and
suffering he was enduring. An important point
is to be made here, too. As Paul sang praises
to God in his pain, there was an earthquake
and it resulted in all present being saved. To
arise to that level of faith is the model I
aspire to and hope to achieve before my
journey is over.
It’s wonderful to be on the glorious mountain
tops, but our experience of God is the most
personal in the dark valleys. There we learn
who he really is and there his love for us is
most personally revealed.
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