Hello? Are you there? Can I be done now?

C.S. Lewis once said, "God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain."

My mind has been going crazy the last 3 days. I have not been questioning God but rather, inquiring of Him. I don't want to know, "why me", but I have been asking, "how long?" The "why me" is easy. For reasons known only to God, He has allowed me to face this huge mountain in my life. There is something that He wants me to see or needs me to see if I am to accomplish His will in my life. I have never really struggled with that. Plus, He sees a strength in me that I didn't even know I had. A strength that He knew would allow me to handle the weight of this burden. Remember, God will never allow us to go through any temptation, but will with that temptation, make a way for our escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). No, my battle has never been as to why He chose to let me go through this storm in my life. I will have to admit though, that I have been a little curious as to "how long will this storm last"? I mean, come on. Enough already. Have I not proven myself yet? Its easy to have these thoughts. If you never have then bless you, but I have to believe that just about everyone who has ever walked through the valley has had this thought (or one like it) at some time or another. We don't mind going through the valleys. We know that this is where the most growth happens between us and Christ. We cannot survive on the mountain. The air is thin. The vegetation is scarce and the dangers and pitfalls are numerous. The valley is where all of the vegetation is. The water flows freely (from the top of the mountain I might add), and there are places where we can find shelter from the storm and the scorching hot sun. The valley is quite a place. The view from the top of the mountain is gorgeous and breathtaking but it must be short lived. We have to get back down to the valley to get what we need for our body. We must renew our strength in the valley and be prepared for the next storm. We must get prepared for the climb up the next mountain for surely it will come. We cannot, nor will not, get there if we don't prepare for it while we are in the valley. Its just hard sometimes to keep walking in the valley when you want so badly to see the mountain top view. We even find ourselves asking God to move the mountain. "God, if you will but move the mountain from in front of me, then I will know victory." Okay, but what if the mountain that you want God to move is the mountain that He wants you to get to the top of? If in fact, He does move that mountain, you may be in the valley even longer. Maybe not, but its something to think about. We must not get caught up in the thought of God coming to the rescue for us. He already has. He just has a very unique way of letting us see the end result. We will still experience the pain of the battle. We will still experience set backs. We will even find ourselves retreating in some of the battles that we fight but the victory is ours. When we retreat, we retreat into the valley and find ourselves being refreshed. We feed ourselves, rest a little while, then start climbing again, fighting all the way. God has already won the war, we just need to follow His strategy and His plan. We will experience pain but we will not experience defeat...unless we get out of His will. That is the only way we will ever lose anything in this war with Satan. He cannot take what we don't give him. So remember the next time you are in a battle that seems to knock you off of your feet, its only going to last as long as God wants it to. The mountain top is coming. Don't ask God to move the mountain. It may be that very mountain that you will be resting on top of tomorrow. Keep fighting the good fight.

LW