The Believer’s Valley Experiences - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, August 15th. There are times when believers feel alone, but the truth is we never are. Let's envelop ourselves in the familiar words of Psalm 23 to be reminded of how we can endure and thrive 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 believers 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 eleven, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Verse fourteen, I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.

And verse twenty seven, as we quoted, 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 two thousand years ago, that was the ultimate test of his love. And if he laid down his life two thousand 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. 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 remember something, maybe 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. And 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 of 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 become 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 blow torch 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, there are 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 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, Ye anointing 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. The healing begins even then. God doesn't wait to start the healing process when we're out on the mountain peak somewhere.

That's not the way God operates. 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, it causes 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. Thank you for listening to part two of The Believer's Valley Experiences. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.