Have you ever heard a song that cuts you deep to your core? Like every word that is sung was written just for you and it is as though God is whispering its message straight to your soul. This song is one of those songs.
I first heard it at a time in my life when my prayers were many but the answers were few. I cried every day and wondered, “Why on earth has God brought me here?” It was never a lack of faith, I still trusted God even though I could not find Him. Its just that I really doubted if I could stand up under the weight of what I was going through.
We all have those times in our lives and some of us feel like the difficulties will never end. Especially, if the trial is in our own minds…the constant battle of self demolition. But God’s whispers are never completely gone. It is true that sometimes He is easy to hear, like a blazing horn outside your window. Then, other times, He is so quiet you find yourself wondering if He is even still there anymore. I remember praying, “Lord where did you go? I cannot find you anymore and I miss you terribly.” Rest assured, He is there. Sometimes we just have to quiet our lives, our thoughts, our insecurities, our worry, our anxiety enough to hear Him. Even giving our doubt a rest, for just a moment, to realize He has never left.
I will never forget the very last talk I gave to my junior high students before we moved down from Connecticut to North Carolina. I didn’t want to leave, I really didn’t. Those students were my family, my joy, my little glimpse of God’s amazing kingdom. I didn’t want to leave them, but I also knew I needed to. I taught on the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. There are so many special moments in this story, but this one burned a permanent place onto my heart.
In John 11:21-22 Martha runs up to Jesus and says, “Lord, if you had been there, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Then, later in the chapter in verse 40 Jesus says, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” Then, what did Jesus do? He called Lazarus out of that tomb and He raised that boy from the from dead! Did you hear me? From…the…dead.
I am sure that there is a part of you that needs to be raised from the dead. For me, becoming a secure woman was literally a resurrection miracle. Jesus gave life to a part of me that I was sure was dead for good…my confidence.
But my goodness…did He not tell us from the start?? Did He not tell us that if we believed we would see the glory of God? We will! We surely will. Yes, the valleys will come. There will be days when the darkness and silence overcome us and we wonder if we will ever see light again. But in the words of my dear sister Ginny Owens, the beautiful, blind, child of God that wrote this song, “If all of these trials bring me closer to you, then I will walk through the valley…if you want me to.”