The Believer's Valley Experiences - Part 2

We discover an intimacy and a sense of quietness. He says that He will lead us into places of rest in the deepest, darkest, blackest moment of your valley experience. There can be the most overwhelming, indescribable sense of peace and rest and quietness and confidence that only hand in hand with the Son of God could you ever experience. God is always with us, whether we realize it or not. Welcome to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. In our greatest triumphs and our darkest moments, the Lord never abandons us.

You may feel alone, but the truth is you never are. Stay with us for one of Dr. Stanley's most enduring messages based on the familiar words of Psalm 23 and find the strength to thrive even in life's valley experiences. Oftentimes in the Bible, valleys are indications or symbols of times of difficulty, hardship, trial, suffering and pain. And I want us to look at this passage in the light of that title, and that is the believer's valley experiences. And if you'll notice in this passage how he begins, he says, The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. And then what we have is this beautiful description of the shepherd leading the sheep into the meadows on the hillsides. He says, He makes me to lie down in green pastures, leads me beside quiet waters, restores my soul, guides me in the paths of righteousness. And then notice verse four how he says it. He says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even though I do that, which is his way of saying it's not the norm, God does not intend for us to live in the valleys or that's our normal way of life, but there will be those seasons in our life, those times in our life, those experiences that become valley experiences, times of difficulty, hardship, trial, pain, rejection, you name it, they're there. And so what he's saying in this passage here, even though I walk through these, he says, I will fear no evil. Why is that?

Why do I not need to be afraid for this reason? If you'll turn to John chapter 10, he said it better than I could. John chapter 10 is the passage of scripture that is the Good Shepherd discourse about Christ. Listen to what he says in this 10th chapter. And this is why when he says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Why? Here's the reason, because the Good Shepherd who is walking with us said this, verse 11, I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Verse 14, I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.

And verse 27, as we quote, did my sheep hear my voice? I know them and they follow me. And I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father who's given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. The Father and I are one. You know why you and I can walk through the valley without fear?

Because this I know. If Jesus Christ loved me enough and loves you enough to lay down his life at the cross 2,000 years ago, that was the ultimate test of his love. And if he laid down his life 2,000 years ago, I don't have to worry about him holding my hand all the way through the valley.

So he says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Now, the question comes, how do we oftentimes respond and what is our reaction when we get in the valley? And people respond in different ways. There's panic, there's turmoil, there's strife, there's the threat of suicide, ending it all, despair, disillusionment, hopelessness, helplessness, and all kinds of responses, not a single one of which is the right one.

Now, what I want to share with you at this point is very, very important. You know why people panic in the valley? Here's the reason. The reason people panic in the valley and the reason they just lose it all is because they walk into these deep, dark valley experiences of life with no basic biblical theology. All of their Christian experience is hype, hype, praising the Lord and it's all emotion. If I feel him, he's there. If I don't feel him, he's not there. And it's praising the Lord for this and praising the Lord for that and I'm for praising God.

I believe in worshiping him and praising him, indeed I do. But my friend, if your Christian life is only a matter of emotion and you listen to sermons and you just walk away hoping you'll remember something maybe, or the messages only make you feel good, they don't challenge you, they don't enrich your mind, challenge your mind and make you think and cause you to want to apply those truths to yourself and you take the time to write them down and to be able to apply them to your life and look for those experiences in life that will help you apply those principles, I can tell you, when the valley experience comes and you don't have a basic theology to live by, you're going to panic. You're going to look to the world to find something.

Listen, here's what you're going to do. More than likely, you're going to find unwise, ungodly counsel and what that's only going to do is deepen your valley and prolong your walk in that valley. And so when he says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Why? Because the psalmist knew God. Now, you see, if I'm going to respond right in the valleys, I need to know him. If I don't know God, I'm not going to respond right. If I know him, that means I understand something of his ways.

How does God operate? Something of his principles. Here are the things that guide us in our Christian walk. Something of his promises.

And not just know them something as far as something being able to quote, but know them in experience. How is it that the truths of God become a part of our very being? Not listening to sermons. That becomes a part of my mind. The truths and the principles and the ways of God, they come a part of my life. When do they become a part of my life?

Here's when they become a part of my life. When God allows me or thrusts me into the valley, then I have to draw from what I know. Then I have to apply what I've heard. Then I have to test what I believe. Then I have to put the blowtorch to the very basic things that have brought me thus far in my life.

And what happens? When you have a basic theology, when you have an understanding of God, when you believe his Scriptures, when you know the promises, when you understand the principles, then in that valley, I'm telling you, friend, everything you believe is going to get tested one way or the other. And if your beliefs have never been tested, then more than likely you don't have much belief. If you don't have a basic belief system that can stand the test and stand the pressure and stand the pain and stand the turmoil and stand the criticism and stand the persecution, then my friend, there's something missing in your spiritual walk. And that's why it's so very important that you and I understand this book and we understand the Word because no matter what you and I face, there are people in the Word of God who've been there. And you can start off, whether it's Abraham or Joseph or David, Moses, they've all had those long valley experiences. Moses, 40 years on the backside of the desert in the valley.

But they understood who God was. Now, Moses had to learn the hard way. And that's why God kept him 40 years till he absolutely ripped everything out of him, that he had nothing. Here he was, a smelly shepherd. And then God spoke to him again.

But he had all those past failures in his life to go back to. And God reminded him that he's God and Moses you're not. I don't know where you may be in the valley, but I can tell you this. My friend, the wisest thing you can do is to get into this book. Read it. Pray over it. Listen to the messages of God's servants as long as they're sticking with the book. Listen to the messages of God's servants.

Write down the truth. Apply them to your heart. Look at how they're being applied in other people's lives. Look at the consequences of disobedience. Those are the things that establish you so that when you get into the valley, the Lord Jesus Christ who holds your hand every step of the way will keep reminding you, because you remember what he says?

He says he sent the Holy Spirit in order that he may bring to our remembrance those things that he wants us to remember, that you and I can apply to our heart those basic truths that anchor us and steady us and keep us firm and solid and stable in the most difficult trying times of our Christian walk. Well, there's a third thing that I want you to notice here about these valley experiences. First of all, we said they're absolutely essential. They're going to be a part of our life.

They're inevitable. Secondly, they're painful. And thirdly, they are profitable. Valley experiences are profitable in our life. And that doesn't mean that because they're profitable, there's not going to be any pain. Yes, there'll be a pain. Even though they're profitable, the pain and the degree of pain may be the same.

But they're profitable for a couple of reasons. First of all, they're times of discovery for us. Discovery of what? We discover what God is like in the valley in a way that we will never discover on the mountain peak. There are things about God, there are aspects of God, there are ways of God that you and I will discover in the deepest, darkest, treacherous, most painful valley experiences we will never even get a glimpse of on the mountain peak.

That's just the way life is. And God reveals Himself in the valley in a way that He does not reveal Himself on the mountain peak. So we're going to get a glimpse of God.

We're going to see Him in ways that we will not see Him otherwise. Also, as I think about what we discover about God, we discover an intimacy and a sense of quietness. He says that He will lead us into places of rest.

Listen to me carefully. In the deepest, darkest, blackest moment of your valley experience, there can be the most overwhelming, indescribable sense of peace and rest and quietness and confidence that only hand in hand with the Son of God could you ever experience. The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want for peace and quietness and tranquility even when the darkest, the deepest, and the most painful walk is a part of your experience. And so He says here, we're going to discover something. Notice He says, He says, Thou preparest the table before Me in the presence of My enemies. You're gnawing My head with oil. He's talking here about providing our needs in the darkest, deepest, most painful part of the valley experience.

And speaking of oil, for example, the shepherd would take oil and rub it on those skinned places where the sheep injured themselves. And He's simply saying that He's going to be our comforter. He's going to be our healer. And the healing process, listen carefully, when you get in the valley, when you and I begin to respond correctly, the healing process begins even in the most intense pain. And so He says, He anoints us with oil. Our cup runs over.

He is providing every single thing that we need. We discover something about ourselves. We discover how much real courage we have. We discover the degree of our faith. We discover the level of our faith. We discover if our self-image is based on Him or in somebody else or what other people think. We discover the true nature of our character. We discover whether we can really endure or not. We discover what the real character is really all about. When we go through those things that cause us to be absolutely helpless and we can do nothing about and all we can do is depend upon God. We discover things about ourselves. You see, here's the reason we make such tremendous discoveries in the deepest, darkest valleys of pain.

Here's the reason. Because God has a way of increasing the pain level to the point that it is so painful, nothing else in life matters. Nothing matters.

Absolutely nothing matters. You see, God knows how to wrench from us everything we depend upon. And that's really what He's up to in the valley of experience. Ultimately, this is His purpose. His ultimate purpose is to do what? To wrench from us emotionally or physically or materially every single solitary thing so that Jesus Christ has no competition as Lord in our life.

There are no challenges to His rule and to His reign and His lordship in our life. And so what does He do? He throws us into the valley of experience to wrench from us, tear from us, every single solitary thing that challenges His place of preeminence in our life. And sometimes those are things that we wouldn't even think of as being a challenge to God. But you see, and this is difficult for us to understand, He wants us to lean on nothing but Himself.

No one but Himself. We are sons and daughters of God walking through valley of experiences learning to rely upon Him and Him only. And so what does He do? He removes every single solitary thing but Himself. And while that is painful and difficult for us, it ends up being glorifying to God. Because it forces us to Himself. And we learn things about ourselves, we would not learn any other way. And He brings us to a sense of dependence upon Him. And that's why when we come through that painful period and we realize that He is it and He is only it and there is no other it but Him, then what happens?

Even in the valley, tranquility, calmness, quietness of spirit. So there are discoveries, discoveries about God, about ourselves, and discoveries about God's purpose in our life. For example, some of us know what God's purpose in our life is and some people do not. And it's interesting to me how many young men who've come to our fellowship, they came to school, their parents paid their way, they were going to be engineers, administrators, and you name it, all of these things, and then something happens in their life.

Bottom drops out, they get thrust into the valley. And it was in the valley when He stripped everything and all hope away from everything that He got their attention. And they could say, Oh, is that what you've been calling me to do, God?

Yes, yes, I do see that. And sometimes in that valley experience, He simply affirms His purpose in your life. And what happens is that God just enriches you and deepens you and strengthens you and makes what you've been doing even more effective. But let me say one other thing, that it is not only a time of discovery, it is a time of preparation.

Now, preparation isn't easy. Think about this. He puts us in the valley and remember this, God never, listen, He never allows us to go through the valley or never initiates the valley experience unless He has a purpose in mind. On the other side of that valley, God has a work, has a purpose, has a plan, that's why the valley is never a destination. Not in the valley, not walking around in it, but through the valley. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel no evil.

Not in it, but through it. He has a purpose in mind. Now, what is He doing in the valley? He's preparing us for the purpose, whatever it is.

He uses those tools we don't like. Sometimes it is humiliation. Sometimes, as He says, it is refinement, cleansing, purifying, renewing. In the valley, experience all the pain and all the hurt we feel. Have an overwhelming, awesome, glorifying, divine purpose behind it all.

That's why the next point is so very absolutely essential. Because whatever His purpose is and whatever He is allowing to go on, what makes my valley experience profitable or a great time of painful loss is how I respond. Now listen, there are two ways to respond. Negatively, we either get thrust in the valley or we get in there because of our own circumstances. We're in the valley, how do I respond? Rebel against God. God, why did you allow this in my life? Look for a way out.

Try to find some little offshoot of the path up some creek in some little slight valley thinking there may be a way out of the valley. So we rebel. We want to run away. We want to blame somebody else for being in the valley. Blaming others is always a sign of our spiritual immaturity.

It doesn't make any difference what happens, how we get there. Ultimately, God allows us to be in the valley. And so we complain. We have pity parties. We moan and we groan and we blame God.

We blame other people. And my friend, as long as you're doing that, here's what's happening. You know what it's like? It's like God just stops you in the valley. He's still got you by the hand, but He just stops. Or He slows down the pace. You know why? Because He's refining and purifying and cleansing and building character and changing and altering and doing what?

Preparing us for what He has in mind. What's the proper response? Here's the proper response. It doesn't make any difference what the nature of the valley is. It doesn't make any difference how short or how long it is. It doesn't make any difference how painful and treacherous it is.

It doesn't make any difference how dark and hopeless and helpless it may be. Here's always the right response. Father, what is Your goal for my life in this experience? Secondly, Father, how do You want me to respond in this experience? Father, all that I am, I lay down before You with no reservations, no restrictions. I am solely Your property. And fourthly, Father, all that I have is Yours.

I open my hands. You can take any and all of it. It is all Yours. And my friend, when you and I get in the valley and that is our response, Almighty God in all of His sovereign wisdom and love will guide us every step of the way through that valley. And secondly, the pain may be almost unbearable, but the glory on the other side will make that pain disappear.

Thanks for joining us on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. If you're laboriously plodding along in a valley and there seems to be no majestic mountain peak in sight, get alone with God and humbly ask Him to help you endure. He may not immediately or ever change your circumstances, but He will give you His perfect peace to sustain you. If you're wondering how to walk with God through the good times and the bad, browse our Bible-based resources at intouch.org to help you on your journey. And to order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, The Believer's Valley Experiences, stop by our online bookstore. Again, log on to intouch.org or call 1-800-IN-TOUCH.

To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Spending time with God, first thing each day, can make a world of difference. Today's moment with Charles Stanley is coming up. The Christian life is an exciting journey with great joys and challenges. We don't always know the right questions to ask or the best way to approach Scripture in search of answers. Dr. Stanley's Handbook for Christian Living is an easy-to-use help system that will bring Scripture to life so you can see God moving powerfully in your life.

To order, call 1-800-IN-TOUCH or go to intouch.org slash store. For Christians, there's a direct relationship between spending time with God and remaining stable in your spirit. Here's A Moment with Charles Stanley. In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place and was praying there. Why do you think He began His day on His knees before the Father or sitting somewhere up in the mountain? Because He knew He had a busy day, busy schedule. Now the truth is you and I have busy days also, and the principle still works. When you and I begin the day with the Lord, it's like that sets the rudder of the day.

It also sets the rate at which I move in that day. We will accomplish the most when we're in His direction, going at His rate. It prevents us from moving in the wrong direction, spending time doing the wrong thing or wasting time, enabling us to be able to be wise in what we do. And most of all, what I've discovered is this, I don't fret, I don't worry, and I'm not impatient. Now there have been many times in my life when all three of those things were very prevalent. But when I learned that if I just give Him the first times of the morning, lay it all before Him, those things are that I don't know about. And the times that I'm going to be interrupted with this, that, and the other, I'm going to trust You to guide me. Well, I love that verse in Isaiah 64 for which says that He acts in behalf of those who wait for Him, waiting in prayer, seeking His guidance, listening very carefully to what He says. Because oftentimes in the midst of looking at what your day may look like, God has some things that you and I don't know about. What we want to do is we want to be prepared for whatever's out there, and God knows exactly how to do that. And I would just suggest that maybe you get your three-by-five card and look at the next day, and then lay it before the Lord, ask Him to give you guidance and direction and tell Him, I am going to walk tomorrow on your schedule, doing what you want me to do, and so, Lord, I'm trusting You for guidance.

And you know what? He'll show you your days will be more fruitful, less hassle, and less worry. Prayer is essential to building a relationship with the Lord.

Learn more about the how and why of prayer at InTouch.org. If you'd like to hear today's message again, you can find it in the radio section of our website, plus an entire library of messages in our audio archives. You can also download a podcast of our program to your MP3 player and take it along with you. Our web address again is InTouch.org. We're glad you joined us today for one of Dr. Stanley's favorite messages on Psalm 23. I hope you'll join us next time for more encouragement from God's Word on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.