Traveling through the valley

I have been traveling through the darkest, most difficult valley of my life. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever dreamed that this valley would be in the story of my life. The pain has been at times more than I can bear, and the tears I have cried would fill many buckets. There are many days when I don't think I can take it anymore, days when the pain crushes my heart and makes it hard to breath. I have tried to give up at times and I have prayed many, many times that God would please take my life so that I could just be in heaven worshiping Him. Yet I am still here. Still holding on. All I have left to hold onto is my God but I am discovering as I travel this valley that when God is all you have left, your life can be richer and more beautiful than ever. God is teaching me so many things and changing my life in amazing ways. I have been feeling that the things God is teaching me are not just for me to hold onto but that as I journey through this sorrow that I can speak out the things on my heart and you all may grow in your love and knowledge of the Lord as well. My deepest hearts desire is that I will not become totally self focused during this difficult time but that I can see the needs in others around me. It is so easy to focus my thoughts, and conversations on the things happening to me but I desire to look beyond my own pain and help others who may be hurting too. Just recently I realized that I don't have to wait for this to be over to do that. That I can begin to share the amazing things taking place in my heart now and through my words and the testimony of what God is doing, that many of you may be encouraged and strengthened as well.

We all walk through difficult seasons in life. We all have our valleys of weeping and God is showing me that even in these times and in these valleys we have a choice to weep the whole way or we can change our weeping into springs of rejoicing. Just because we rejoice doesn't make the valley disappear. We still have to walk through it. It will still be hard and painful at times but there can be so much joy and peace as we travel through. Not joy in our circumstances but joy in our God. The God who is carrying us through. Who walks every mile we walk. He is there to pick us up when we fall, to weep as we weep, and to give us the strength to take the next step. He is the God who knows the end of the story and his love and grace, his strength and mercy are there for us every minute of everyday. If we draw from these as we travel through the pain of the day, he will fill us up with everything we need for that moment. What an amazing thought.

An amazingly beautiful thing that God has shown me during the past few weeks is that if in the midst of my pain, disappointment and confusion I can offer to Him a sacrifice of praise, that it is truly an incredible privilege. Only in this life on earth will I be able to give Him an offering of praise with this kind of fragrance. Once I am in heaven I won't be able to give Him this kind of praise because I won't experience pain or suffering. So many days in the past couple of months the pain becomes so overwhelming that I want so badly to die. I just want to be in heaven worshiping my God. But I should rejoice that I get the privilege of being able to offer up to God and offering with this fragrance. I recently told this to a dear friend of mine and she said that someone once shared a similar thing with her. She said that she had a picture of God in heaven with the glory of the praise of all the angels around Him, and He silenced heaven so that He could hear the praise of the one on earth who was praising Him through her pain. The fragrance was so sweet to Him that He silenced the majestic melody of the worshiping angels to hear that one frail voice. When we worship God, even through our tears, He will run to us, lift us up out of our despair, and set us firmly on the rock. He will cover us under the shadow of His wings until the calamity has passed us by. If we have nothing else to rejoice in, we can rejoice in this.

How Great Is Our God!!!