FOODFORTHOUGHT

By Dave Dravecky, "When You Can't Come Back"

The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people, and
your father's household and go to the land I will show you."
(Genesis 12:1)

It seems to me that the journey of faith is not such an easy to
follow map. It is a one-step-at-a-time kind of experience. When God
called Abraham to leave his hometown and follow Him, Abraham was
given no map, no set of directions. He didn't even know his
destination. God just said, "Get up and go to a land that I will
show you."

Abraham was expected to go where God led him, a step at a time, a
day at a time. There were no guarantees that the journey would be
easy. He had a lot of heartache along the way, his share of danger,
and the painful introspection of living with postponed hopes.

Yet he is living as a man of faith.

God doesn't promise us a life of mountaintop experiences. There
will be valleys to go through, too. Dark valleys. Disorienting
valleys. Valleys of depression and despair. What He promises is not a
road map that will give us a detour around those valleys, but that He
will walk through those valleys with us.

When we emerge from those experiences, we look back and realize
that that's where the growth is. It isn't on the mountaintops, above
the timberline; it's in the valleys.

** DEAR LORD, You never promised me a rose garden; you never said
that this world would be easy. But you have promised me that in
times of joy and in times of difficulty you will always be with me.
As I pass through the valley of adversity in my life, please grant me
the faith and strength to face them. Take away all my fears, and let
me just hold Your hand as I continue my journey of faith. Thank You,
Lord.

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