How Long is This Valley 1982

I'd like to begin by reading Psalm 13. It only has six verses. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God.

Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest mine enemies say I have prevailed against them, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy.

My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. To get from the place where God has given us vision to the place where that vision becomes reality in our lives, we have to pass through a valley where the vision is formed in us, beaten into shape many times.

Now, many of us really have been trying to avoid that valley where all that has to happen to us. The Spirit gets behind us and begins to drive us and push us toward the valley which is necessary. And we dig in our heels and cry out, Lord God, wait a minute.

I don't think I'm ready to commit myself that far. I love this vision you gave me. Why don't you just let me sit here and ponder the vision? But the vision which God gives us will never amount to a single thing in our lives unless it is developed in us in that valley and made real.

And so to those who refuse to commit themselves to Jesus sufficiently that they're willing to let him take them down into the valley, there's really nothing more to be said. They can sit on their mountaintop and hold on to their vision until their vision turns to stone. But for those who are willing to follow the Lord down into the valley, it's really helpful to keep remembering that this route down through the valley is necessary.

It's the only one that's going to work. It's the only one that will develop the vision into reality in our lives, and it's worth the trouble. Jesus came up out of the waters of his baptism, and he received a vision from the Father.

He saw heaven open. He saw the Holy Spirit descending upon him in the form of a dove. But for that vision to become of substance, even in him, God the Son, it was necessary for him to be taken into a valley.

And he was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And only in the wilderness, going through the tremendous pressure and pain that he experienced there, was the vision made real. Then he came back to Israel and began to proclaim the kingdom and heal the sick and raise the dead and lay down his life for our sins and overcome death for us.

Now, Jesus' entire ministry followed that pattern. Vision, valley, reality. Vision, valley, reality.

He's down in Judea. Gets a vision that it's time to go north to Galilee. Now, to get to Galilee, if he's going to do it straight, without, as most of the cowards did, going around, he would have to go through Samaria.

And Samaria was hostile country. Samaritans hated Jews because Jews hated Samaritans. But Jesus never went around.

He went right through. And there in the valley, in that place of hostility and rejection, the Father's vision to Jesus is turned into something real as Jesus meets the woman at the well and brings her into the kingdom. In the upper room, Jesus sits down with his disciples, reclines really around that table, and gives to them a vision of the glory of the Father's banquet table in the kingdom.

But then as soon as supper is over, he takes these same men down into a horrendous valley where they see his arrest, his phony trial, his crucifixion. And only in that valley is this thing made real. Then Jesus comes forth from the dead and leads his disciples out of the valley into a life of divine power.

Now we thank God for the vision he gives us. We thank him for the flashes of blinding glory that come at certain rare moments of God's choosing. And we also thank him for the daily vision he gives us, that insight which is more than insight, that thought which comes into our minds and brings us back to reality, shows us which way to go, gives us encouragement, corrects us, whatever we need, from God.

But with every vision, every vision, there is a valley. Now sometimes the valley is brief. Two or three days, we're through it, the vision has become reality, and we're on our way.

And sometimes the valley is long. And when we're going through one of these long valleys, it seems as though we'll never get to the end. It looks like it's going to be an endless thing.

And while we travel through the long, long valley, we are tempted to give up hope, to throw in the towel, to quit doing it God's way and take a shortcut. How long do I have to travel through this valley and never see your face, O God? How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Now our reaction to the long valley is to begin to think that God is unfair. He gives everybody else a break but me.

And then to begin to withdraw from God into a little world of our own where we sulk. Now when we withdraw in this way, and we all are tempted to do this, and all of us have done it one time or another, and many of us may be doing it now, when we withdraw into our own little world and brood and sulk and flirt with despair, all we do is stretch out the valley and make it even longer. When you're going through a valley and it doesn't make any sense and you're tempted to think that God is being terribly unfair, the first thing to do is open your mouth and tell him.

Don't sit there and brood. Tell God how you feel. Elijah did.

Listen to Elijah in 1 Kings 19. Ahab told Jezebel the queen all that Elijah had done and how he had slain the prophets of Baal with a sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So may the gods do to me and more also.

If I do not make your life as the life of one of them, then Elijah was afraid. And he rose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.

He wanted to get away from it all and came and sat down under a broom tree and he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough now, O Lord. You are my father. No, I want to die.

I can't take this anymore, Lord. You are throwing too much at me. Now he knew that his thoughts were twisted.

But praise God, this man had enough humility to open his heart and express that to God. He didn't pretend to have all the answers with his mouth and be brooding in his heart. He opened his heart and his mouth and told God.

Now he keeps going south into the Sinai and he finally arrives at Mount Sinai. And there he came to a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, What are you doing here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars and slain thy prophets with a sword.

And I, even I, only am left and they seek my life to take it away. I'm the only one left, Lord. You know, how many times we feel that way? Well, other people are hypocrites.

I'm the only one left. And we know as we think those thoughts that they're sick. But at least this man expressed them to God.

And before Elijah left Sinai, God had restored his mind and returned his vision to him. Jeremiah, does any man who ever walks through a valley say it was Jeremiah? It seemed like his whole life was a valley. You know, and the beautiful thing about it is he doesn't slap in his beard.

He expresses his complaint to God. Jeremiah 12. Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I complain to thee, yet I would plead my case before thee.

Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? Thou plantest them and they take root. They grow and bring forth fruit. Thou art near in their mouth, but far from their heart.

But thou, O Lord, knowest me thou seest me and tryest my mind toward thee. In other words, you know, you give everybody else a break. You don't give me an inch.

How come? But at least he says that to God. Habakkuk wrote a book, only three chapters. It's one of the most powerful books in all scripture, well worth reading.

And Habakkuk was going to a valley. And he takes his complaint to God. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and thou wilt not hear? Or cry to thee violence and thou wilt not save? Why dost thou make me to see wrongs and look upon trouble? Sick and tired of watching the news.

You know, nothing makes sense. It's absurd. Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on wrong, why dost thou look on faithless men and art silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? Well, he was thinking of himself just like we do.

See, but he didn't sit there and bottle it all up. He spoke it to God, and that's what we need to do. We need to say it.

The worst thing we can do when we're feeling that God is being unfair with us is to sit around and brood. Don't do that. Open your heart, open your mouth, draw near to God, then keep crying out.

Shall not God vindicate his elect who cry to him day and night? Shall he delay long over them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Next thing we need to do when we're going through a valley that seems to be endless and we tend to think that God is just really being absolutely unfair with us is to hold on to the vision. Hang on to the vision you got before you went into the valley.

You saw the glory of God, you're going to see it again. You saw the mercy of God, you'll see it again. Habakkuk climbs up on his watchtower and he says, okay, I'm going to stay up here until you give me an answer.

And so he gets an answer. And the answer is hang on to your vision, Habakkuk. What's the matter with you? From a God who really cares.

Habakkuk says, I will take my stand to watch and station myself on my tower and look forth to see what he will say to me and what he will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me, write the vision, make it plain upon tablets so he may run who reads it and not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it.

It will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Write the vision, make it plain upon tablets.

In other words, take that vision and hold on to it. Even when all hell breaks loose, as it does and will, and when nothing seems at all to make any sense, everything's absurd, there is nothing in our circumstances to support the vision at all, to still hold on. That's what Job did.

Job's going through a valley that you and I have never even smelled. And while he's going through the valley, he says, holding on to his vision, I know it, David goes through his valleys, long valley, and he holds on to his vision. He says to his own soul, himself, why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of thy covenant and thy God.

Finally, when we're going through the valley and it's getting longer all we need to do is right there in the valley practice the presence of God. God is there in the valley. He can be known right there.

Not only is the vision still there, God is still there. Now one day, the valley will end. But the real end of the valley does not come just when the sun bursts through and everything's rosy again.

The real ending to the valley is the second. I turn to God right there in the valley. Commit myself to him again.

Practice his presence. Walk with him by faith right there. Lord, you're with me.

Instantly, the valley turns into a place of glory. Here's Jesus sitting on the well in Samaria. He's not sitting there cuing his nails and saying to himself, where are we going to get out of this place? But he receives the circumstances that are coming as from his father.

Takes them as they come. Here comes this woman of Samaria and he takes her as coming from his father and he ministers life to her and he turns that valley into a place of glory. Again and again, this is what Jesus does.

He takes the valley, turns it into a place of glory. In Samaria, especially at Calvary, we're to do the same. Don't sit around and brood.

Take that valley by turning to God and make it into a place of glory. Psalm 13 starts out with these verses or this verse. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? Five verses down at the end of the psalm, the same man going through that valley says, I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

Right in the middle of his problems, he's practicing God's presence and he experiences God's power. Habakkuk does exactly the same thing. He starts out his book with complaints.

Lord, how long shall I cry for help and thou wilt not hear? Or cry to thee violence and thou wilt not save? Why dost thou make me to look upon wrongs and see trouble? The book is only three chapters. By the time he gets to the end of this book, he's practicing the presence of God right there in the valley and this is what he says. Though the fig tree do not blossom nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, the fields yield no food, the flocks be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like hind's feet.

He makes me to tread upon my high places. Everything's going to pot. Nothing's working at all, but God is with me and he's my strength right in the middle of that.

How long will this valley go on, we say? The valley will be there as long as it needs to be. It'll be there until it accomplishes its purpose. It will end the instant I turn to my God in the valley.

And begin to practice his presence and trust him in spite of everything. To do that is possible for each of us. Whatever the valley is for each of us here, we can transform the valley instantly today into a thing of awesome glory.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me here in the valley. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me right here. Thou prepares the table before me in the presence of mine enemies here in the valley.

Thou anoints my head with oil, my cup runneth over here in this valley even before one thing begins to change. Everything on the surface still looks bleak. The fig tree isn't blossoming.

There's no fruit on the vines. The olive trees are failing. The flocks are gone.

Yet will I rejoice in my God. I will joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength.

He makes my feet like high as feet. He causes me to walk upon the high places. And as I rejoice in my God in the middle of all that, keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, in the middle of that, I suddenly discover that I've come out into a broad place.

We've left the valley now. The valley's behind us. And the vision is fulfilled.

And the light of God begins to pour forth from us for others as never before. Let's just take some time in silence before God. Lord, you know how we're in so many different places right now in our walk.

Such a variety here in this place. But we're asking that you'd help us and touch us exactly where we are. Some of us have been going through a valley.

And some of us are going to be going through a valley. And some of us are going through it now. Lord, you know how even when we look around and we see things that just don't make any sense, how we're baffled.

And we just ask that your spirit would help us to turn our thoughts to you and to see you in the midst of all this, the one who suffers more than any of us do. Bring us back to the cross, the center of all the pain and anguish of the whole universe. And there, enable us this day to find our healing and return to our praises of you.