“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8
There is something powerful about knowing that the God we worship is not a God who changes with our circumstances. He is not more present when life is going well and less present when everything begins to fall apart. He is not only the God of the breakthrough, the promotion, the answered prayer, the celebration and the mountain-top experience. He is also the God of the waiting, the uncertainty, the disappointment, the wilderness and the valley.
He is God in every season.
The God who carried Israel through the wilderness was the same God who brought them into the Promised Land. Sometimes, however, our greatest struggle is not believing that God exists. It is trusting Him when we cannot see what He is doing. Scripture gives us a sobering picture of what happens when we decide that we can trust ourselves more than we trust God. When Israel faced the Red Sea, they panicked. When they saw the Egyptian army behind them and the sea before them, they questioned whether God had brought them there to die. Yet God was already making a way where they could see no way.
Think about this statement: The valley never changed who God was. The mountain never made Him more God.
Later, when Israel entered the Promised Land, they faced another moment of fear. At Kadesh-barnea, the spies saw the giants in the land and allowed what they saw to become greater than what God had promised. They trusted their assessment more than God’s word, and that decision led an entire generation into forty years of wandering.
There is a lesson here. What we see is not always the full story.
And perhaps that is where many of us find ourselves. We begin with faith, but somewhere along the journey we start calculating everything ourselves. We look at the economy, the diagnosis, the relationship, the job, the bills, the future, the uncertainty, the closed door. We start asking, “How will I make this work?” And slowly, without realizing it, we move from trusting God to trusting ourselves, and this is a very dangerous perspective to view life from. I have found myself, especially when things arent working out as I had anticipated, start asking myself questions like how will I , what can I, its always me, trying to get a way out. You know what; Scripture reminds us: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
Trust does not mean that we understand everything. Trust means that we know Who does.
Jesus does not ask us to trust Him only when the answer is visible. He asks us to trust Him when the road is unclear. He does not ask us to believe only when the mountain is in sight. He asks us to believe Him while we are still walking through the valley. The valley can be a strange place. It can feel quiet. It can feel lonely. Sometimes it can feel as though God has disappeared.
But the valley is not evidence of God’s absence.
David understood this when he wrote:
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
Psalm 23:4
Notice what David says: “You are with me.”
Not, “You were with me.” Not, “You will eventually find me.” You are with me. That is the power of a present God. HE IS PRESENT, in that very situation that you are In!!
The mountain and the valley are different places, but they do not contain different Gods. The God who meets you when everything is finally working is the same God who holds you when nothing seems to make sense. The God who celebrates with you in your highest season is the God who sits with you in your lowest season. The God who gives you the victory is the God who sustains you while you are waiting for it.
And perhaps this is what we need to remember most: our circumstances are seasonal, but God’s character is not.
There will be seasons when we feel strong and seasons when we feel weak. Seasons of abundance and seasons of scarcity. Seasons when doors open and seasons when doors close. Seasons when prayers seem to receive immediate answers and seasons when heaven appears silent. But Jesus remains the same.
So when you are on the mountain, trust Him. When you are walking through the valley, trust Him. When you understand what He is doing, trust Him. When the answer has come, trust Him. When you are still waiting for the answer, trust Him because the greatest security of the believer is not that every season will be good.
It is that God will be good in every season. The valley does not mean God has left you. The mountain does not mean you have outgrown your need for Him. Both places are invitations to trust.
We have been in seasons when we have felt strong and seasons when we have felt stretched. We have walked through times when the way forward seemed clear, and times when we could only take the next step by faith. We have experienced seasons of certainty and seasons of questions, seasons of abundance and seasons of waiting. Yet through every season, one thing has remained constant: God has been there.
And wherever you are today, remember:
The God who is with you in the valley is the same God who will meet you on the mountain.!!
