When it comes to our spiritual walk on this earth, there is one thing that I have certainly learned, and it is this- there is no way out! Even if we throw our hands up in defeat and make the conscious decision to walk away from God because “this is not what Christianity is supposed to be”, our exit is still a path we choose to walk. And as I have walked out a very long, lonely and isolated season I have come to realize that sometimes, there is no rescue, the storm doesn’t pass and even if it does pass, there is another one coming right behind it! Sounds encouraging, doesn’t it? The truth is, we can’t get to the light at the end of the tunnel without going through the tunnel. In that deep, dark, cold damp tunnel with a mountain weighing down on top of us, it is isolated, lonely, scary, and maddeningly quiet. Doubt and confusion creep into your mind. You have plenty of time to question why…. It can feel like punishment. When you finally do make it through that tunnel, your excitement is suddenly crushed because you find yourself in a valley! Even though we all know you can’t get from one mountain to another without walking through a valley. But during the disappointment of where you thought you were going and where you suddenly find yourself it is so tempting to take control and try to find another way! Or just quit walking all together. Especially when you aren’t hearing from God. After all, we must have made a wrong turn somewhere to be here. Or we begin to believe that God has turned his back on us because he is angry with us for not being good enough and this is punishment. Or we blame the enemy. No matter the “why”, the reality is God has every detail in the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:16). Unlike us, he is never surprised. When we forget this, we prolong our journey through the tunnels and the valleys by getting lost in the hunt for a reason, we don’t even realize that we still have a mountain to climb to get to that mountain top! It's during the climb that we begin to hear those around us urging us to press in. For a long time, I didn’t understand that term, what was everyone telling me to press in to? One day when I was hiking a particularly difficult hill I began to have a hard time breathing, my legs burned, my back hurt. Normally, I would stop and catch my breath. But that always makes it so much harder to start again because you lose momentum. Instead, I leaned forward, lengthened my stride and made it to the top. My breathing even leveled out. It was then that God showed me, this is what it means to press in, and I finally got it! Press into the fear, uncertainty, grief, pain, anger, and surrender like the woman with the issue of blood pressed in through the crowd that was pressing in on Jesus, just to touch the hem of his garment. The crowd around him that posed such a threat to her was just an obstacle to the one she knew held her healing. Even in the pressure from the mob of people all around him, He noticed her, felt her touch the hem, went looking for her in the crowd and confirmed her belief. (Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 9:22-56, Luke 8:42-48)
God never promised us that life would be easy. If that is the lie you believed at the beginning of your Christian walk, the enemy was trying to prune you before you had a chance to take root. Just look at the disciples, why would he bless us above his disciples? Jesus plainly tells us in John 16:33 that we will have troubles, but we will never be alone and we can be assured that He has overcome the world.
Three things can extend our stay in the tunnel or the valley. First, many people walk away from their faith because of the mistaken belief that once they become a Christian everything will be good! Roses, rainbows and all your wishes come true! But God isn’t a genie in a bottle, He is sovereign. For those who think He is, when tribulation comes they eventually walk away because they feel like they were deceived. Sometimes that’s just immaturity. How do you explain joy to a non-believer for them to truly understand it? I don’t think you can. What they don’t understand (and we sometimes forget) is that our salvation doesn’t change the world, it just changes us. When we don’t lose touch with our gratitude, faithfully follow the Lord and don’t quench the Holy Spirit, people begin to see the change in us. That leads to God being able to use us to change the small corner of our world and expand His kingdom. In order to be transformed in this way, we must constantly renew our mind (Romans 12:2). Choosing to walk away from your faith doesn’t end the path you are walking on, it just takes a lot longer to get to where you need to be.
Another misconception is that we find ourselves in the tunnel or the valley because God is angry with us and punishing us. But his wrath was poured out on Jesus as he hung on the cross for our sins (Galatians 3:13). As a result, we no longer live under the law, we live in the gift of grace.
And finally, we give all the credit to Satan, believing we are only in a dark place because of the enemy. And make no mistake, he takes every opportunity to twist our thoughts and hearts, but we often give him way too much credit and power. He is not the one in control. He may have this world, but he does not have us. When we get stuck in the pattern of rebuking Satan for everything we see as bad and blame him for causing our troubles and only blaming him for where we are, we miss the point of our journey. We fail to grow and we stay in the valley. We miss the lesson.
What we are supposed to do is keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). When we keep our eyes fixed on Christ, surrender our expectations and control and trust in our creator (in spite of our discomfort, uncertainty and pain) we can make it through our difficult journey to that mountain top view. These journeys, if done right, will discipline us, refine us, and build our endurance to finish the race. (Hebrews 12) And we need that endurance, because if you live on the mountain top, you aren’t spreading the good news to a lost world. (Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19-20)
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