Picture it…
Turmoil and dishevel surround your life, swirling and crashing into your soul until you are almost lost to the pull of the waves. The sun has been blotted out, even though you know it’s high noon and you can barely see your hand in front of your face due to the thick covering of despair. The valley walls are wide and deep and the path between is frighteningly narrow.
It seems you are getting hit with plague after plague from all different directions and you simply cannot take any more; certain the breaking of your soul is about to come and it will be brutal. With tears streaming you cry, scream and beg the Lord for relief. Face down, ready for a miracle. Seeking Him with your whole heart and waiting expectantly for the calm to come eliminate the chaos.
And then you see the tiny sliver of a sun ray slicing through the cloud cover. Hope floods your heart and you praise God with all that is within you. He is Wonderful, Provider, Almighty, Way Maker and your faith soars to new heights. Just when you thought your end was imminent and you would never find your way out from the valley floor, you find your feet firmly planted on the mountain top. The difficult season of your life has passed and it’s on to brighter days. Hallelujah!
Three months later, no one sees your face in church anymore.
You may find this story hard to believe, but it’s a tale as old as time. (as Mrs Potts would say) Shall I offer you another story similar in thought?
The desert heat rose in waves from the Egyptian sand. Pharaoh glared out over his kingdom in disgust from the plague on the Nile that had caused it to turn to blood and kill the fish. The stench was deep in his nostrils and he could not escape it no matter how much incense his servants burned.
Moses. Even in his thoughts, that name made him furious. It was not so long ago this same man, who claimed to speak for his God, walked this very palace hallways. Who does he think he is? Pharaoh thought, as his hatred grew.
But the cries of his people rose day and night as the suffering increased throughout the land. Many relied on the Nile for water to drink and food to eat. Pestilence became overwhelming from the rotting fish washing onto the shores. But he refused to let the Hebrew slaves go.
“My lord. Moses and his brother are here again requesting another audience with you. What should I tell them?”
Pharaoh looked at his palace slave for a moment and then reluctantly nodded. “Send them in”
“You know why we have come. Thus says the Lord, ‘Let My People go, that they may serve Me.’ Should you refuse, frogs will come upon your land and your people. They will be every where. In your bed, your ovens, your food supply. They will come upon you, your servants and your people. You will not escape them.”
Moses waited for an answer. The two men stared at one another for a moment and then Pharaoh leaned forward.
“I will not yield to your God. Get out of my sight!”
It was early morning when Pharaoh was awakened by something crawling over him. As he looked down to make sense of what he was feeling, the early sunrise was casting strange shadows, but then he saw them. Hundreds of frogs covering his bed and floor. He bolted up and took off running, stepping on frogs as he burst through his chamber doors. He could hear the screams and shrieks from the people coming from all corners of his kingdom.
Grabbing the first servant he could find, Pharaoh demanded Moses and Aaron be brought forth immediately. Later that afternoon, as the gentleman entered the great hall, the king had already had enough.
“Ask your God to take away these frogs from me and my people. This plague is grievous and we need relief. Ask him and if they are taken away, I will allow your people to leave and make sacrifices to your God.”
The very next day, Moses and Aaron cried to the Lord on behalf of Pharaoh, asking for the frogs to be removed. The Lord God heard their cries and all the frogs died. The smell was far worse than the Nile turning to blood, but the people were rid of them and they were thankful.
When Pharaoh saw there was relief for his kingdom, his heart was hardened yet again, and reverting back to his old ways, he refused to let the Hebrews go. (The full story can be found in Exodus 7:7-8:15)
When we experience seasons of pain and suffering, it is not uncommon for even the most cynical skeptic to cry out for rescue- even if it’s from a God they don’t necessarily believe in. Pain has a way of pushing us toward Heaven like nothing else.
The valley can be a very scary place, full of shadows, strange noises and loneliness. The weight of sorrow squeezing you like a vice is the perfect explanation for your desire to find rest and relief. So you throw your hands up and reach for the One you believe can pull you out of the pit.
Too often; however, I have seen people get pulled out of some monstrous sized holes, burn hot for Christ for a season and then simply fall off the radar. You’re left scratching your head wondering- Where did they go?
This can also happen with people who come to church every day. You have a fairly normal life with work, kiddos, sports, family vacations and yes- you squeeze in Sunday church to round out the “to do” list and keep up appearances. But, without warning, one day you are faced with an incredibly difficult situation and you run to be close to Jesus so He can help pull you through. You’re praying, digging into the scriptures, keeping your praise and worship music cranked up loud and asking your fellow brothers and sister for help navigating through the wilderness.
Finally you get a breakthrough and you are so thankful. Your heart is full of gratitude for the Lord and you declare His goodness to those you meet. This terrible season has now passed and you can relax. So, eventually you stop reading your Bible as often, your church attendance is hit or miss most weeks and you roll down the street with the car bumpin’ to the latest pop hits. Life moves back to “normal” and God is left wondering, “Where did they go?”
How quickly we can revert back to our old ways when standing on the mountain top.
Just like Pharaoh, we will run to God for relief from whatever “plague” is haunting us these days, but as soon as He takes care of the issue, more times than not, we become lazy with our spiritual disciplines. Why?
If your sudden devotion to the faith is based solely on your circumstances, when those circumstances change, so will your devotion.
Our faith walk must be centered on Jesus Christ and Him alone. We have to be desperate for God in all seasons, but especially on the mountain top. When the sun is shining and all is right with the world, our human nature wants to believe, “I got this.” We rely less on Christ, and trust more in our own abilities and wisdom.
But, we need to be like King David who wrote:
“As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1)
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1)
“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:2)
And also Isaiah when he said:
“My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you.” (Isaiah 26:9a)
Let this be our heart cry too. That we would stay desperate for the Living God, regardless of what is happening in our life. He would be the first person we seek out when we wake and the last person we think about when we lay our head down to rest in the evening.
May we hunger and thirst for Him in the valley, the mountain top and every place in between. I pray we would want nothing else but to enter into His courts and sit at His feet, enjoying His presence. That we would study His scriptures and grow in our understanding of Who He is and learn all we can about our Savior.
Let’s stop with the “fox hole prayers”. Those Hail Mary’s we throw up, just to get us out of trouble. Let’s start developing a real relationship with Jesus Christ, so our desire will be only for Him.
Because the truth is, it’s much easier to see the storm rolling in, feel the wind on your face and hear the thunder rumble when you’re already holding the hand of the One who controls the weather; instead of running around trying to find Him in the dark.
As Shane and Shane put it in their song titled “Yearn”,
Lord I want to yearn for You
I want to burn with passion over You
And only You
Lord, I want to yearn
This type of desperation, dear friends, will see you through anything this life hurls toward you.
