The Valley’s Of Life

Everyone goes through a valley. As we go through life, there will be hills and there will be valley’s. There will be high times and low times. There will be great times where everything will just fall into place. But the valley’s will not be so great. They can be painful, hurtful, and disappointment.

Valley’s are a low point in our lives, it can be irrational, emotional. financial, or spiritual. Sometimes it is so low we can’t even explain it because we are confused ourselves.

But there is good news for us in the midst of these valleys. There will always better days. We can expect to find springs in the hills and mountains. What’s amazing is we can find springs in the valley also.

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills

Deuteronomy 8:7

If we notice that while we are in a valley, God provides springs of refreshing. The fact of the valley is part of God’s plan for you and I.

God is the God of the hills as well as the valley. God is available and is at work in our lives whether you are on the hillside, on top of the mountain or in the lowest valleys.

Life is made up of hills and valleys.

A valley can be discouraging and disappointing, it can be depressing. A valley can be doubt thinking that you will never get through a problem.

A valley can be a discouragement or depression. Life is moving in a direction you do not want to go. You’ll wonder where in the world is God going in my life.

The enemy wants you to think that when you are in the valley of trouble that God is absent. While God isn’t absent, it can be harder to see his light, but we just have to look closer – He is always there.

Remember that God is the hills is also the Gof of the valleys.

We will not live out entire lives in the hills or the mountains. We will not escape all the low points in life,

We will not always have health and wealth in our lives. There will also be trials by fire, disappointments. But we need to remember that Jesus was crucified. The apostle Paul wrote most of his books while he was in jail. Moses was 40 years in the wilderness before God greatly used him. King David was in hiding for 17 years.

King David’s thought his was going to die at the hand of his enemy Saul. But instead God raised him up.

Life can be that way.

Do you know what’s a danger when you are a valley? Instead of passing through the valley, we believe we own the valley. We don’t want to own the valley. Keep looking for the light.

Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you, to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you.

1 Peter 4:12

But man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

Job 5:7

Valleys are like a school designed to teach us and mature us. Valleys are very important.

Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Jacob 1:2-4

That the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Yeshua the Messiah.

1 Peter 1:7

We will not always know why we went through a trial. Some valley experiences will not be explained why in this life time. There are some things that do get answered in this life.

We can enter the valleys because we are unspiritual, or God is pruning us, so we will grow.

The valleys we visit:

  • The Valley Of Bachor. The valley of weeping and sorrow.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are always praising you. Bless are those whose strength is in you; who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage (Journey). passing through the valley of weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings.

Psalm 84:4-6

There are valleys that literally bring you to tears. It is a valley where tears become part of your life. But as you are in the valley of tears, God’s word says you can make or convert it into a spring, transforming tragedies into triumphs.

You may not be able to change your circumstances, but you can change the way you look at your circumstances.

Your problem can either push you down, or you can stand on your problems and push them down.

There are some things in life we cannot fix. When we come to a river, we build a bridge. When we get hungry and we don’t want to cook, we go to a restaurant. But there are some things in life we can do nothing about. We cannot fix the attitude that is in that of another person.

The Valley Of Achor. Where you cause trouble for yourself and others..

This is where you cause trouble for yourself and others. It is caused by being selfish and greedy. God had given the command that when the city of Jericho is captured, everything in the city belongs to God. But Achan decided to take what was God’s as his.

Joshua 7:24-26

He stole:

He though no one would know.

Total judgement.

Do you know how you trouble yourself and others?

Unconfessed sin or hidden sin or hidden habits.

If we live in unconfused sin or hidden sin thinking it will not affect others. We will surly enter the valley of Achor.

Every time a person goes through a valley of trouble , there is always a door of Hope. If we want to leave the valley of trouble, we must go through the door of Hope. We must decide to take action. When we do, we’ll walk out of the valley of trouble through the door of hope and back into the wide place of God’s blessing.

Satan will tell you, “ No, you’re in the valley and you’ve got to stay there. You can’t get out. It’s a valley with no exit.”

I have met people who have been in the valley of trouble for 10-15 years. When they realize what got them there and how easy it would be to walk through the door of hope into God’s blessing, I wonder, “Why didn’t someone tell them?”

You may be stuck in the valley of trouble, but there’s always a door. You must simply decide to go through it.

If you’re in the valley of Achor (trouble) to avoid judgement you need to examine yourself.

But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup (communion).

1 Corinthians 11:28

For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgement to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judge ourselves rightly, we will not be judged.

1 Corinthians 11:29-31

The Valley Of Discussion Or Indecision.

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near,in the valley of decision.

Joel 3:14

The worst time to make a decision is when you are in a valley. God says, pray and ask make no decisions until I answer and guide you in the way you should go.

The Valley Of No Spiritual Refreshing.We may be in a valley of drought. Our souls seem like a dust desert.

The Valley Of Dry Bones.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and be brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones; I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.

Ezekiel 37: 1-14

Choose to learn from your valleys.

As you go through your valley God will teach you, if you let Him. Ask; “Lord do you wish to teach me from the valley I am in right now.’

When you’re in a valley m don’t forget the Word of God, don’t forget to pray, and don’t forget to be with other believers. Get people to pray with you and for you.

Live life with a mission. That is to serve God. Choose to be involved in a ministry.

If you are in a valley, don’t deny that you are in a valley.

Don’t try and hurry through a valley. I have found if you try and hurry through a valley you will soon find yourself in the same Valley. Learn all you can from the valley you are in, so you done have to be in it again.

Don’t blame others for your valley. Accept that God is trying to equip you for the future,

Breaking Through A Heart Of Stone

Many people think of a person with. Stone heart as the villain in a movie, evil, uncaring, unfeeling, and bitter. A stone heart is a rigid heart that shows up in negative ways. The stone heart is cold, set, firm and does not want to change. Like stones which do not get up and move, Stone hearts are stuck in one place. They rarely undergo any changes unless something make them do so.

It’s pretty easy to identify with the hard-harder villain in a story, but we meet people with stone hearts in every day life.

How Do Hearts Become Stony?

Some people become Stone-hearted from the trials, disappointments, and hard times they’ve had in the past. They get a mindset that drives their actions and responses to life situations. Rather that being flexible in seeing things from different points of view, they shut out other ways of thinking and doing things.

Getting Rid Of A Stony Heart

Whereas the heart of stone causes people to miss opportunities, allowing God to change that heart opens up the door for much better things. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” With a soft heart, we can begin to enjoy the closeness of others by being tenderhearted and forgiving as God has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32).

Hebrews 3:15 says,” Today If you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” A soft heart that earnestly listens to God opens up the door to a true relationship with Him.

Psalm 37:23 tells us that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord. Following God’s truth and guidance for our lives gives us more opportunities to receive both His spiritual and material blessings. If you believe you have a heart of stone, consider what God has to say on this subject. Your breakthrough is just waiting on you.

From experience, I had a stone heart from many, many years. I had put concrete walls up around me, so high that no one could break through, not even God.

Emotional Neglect And The Highly Sensitive Person

Highly sensitive people are more invalidated when their emotions are disturbed.

  • Highly sensitive people are born to experience deeper, more powerful emotional lives.
  • Emotionally neglectful parents are prone to ignoring or discounting feelings in general, including their children’s.
  • The highly sensitive child experiences emotional neglect as deeply personal and painful invalidation of their inner lives.

In the late 1990s, research conducted by psychologists and neuroscientists confirmed that some people were simply wired differently (Aron and Aron, 1997).

Based on that research, Elaine Aron, PHD wrote the classic book The Highly Sensitive Person. in this breakthrough book, she describes a highly sensitive person is more sensitive to sound, textures, and other outside stimulation than the average person. This is an adaptable survival mechanism found in hundreds of species including fruit flies and fish.

It is also important to note that highly sensitive people are born this way. In the classic to beat of nature vs nurture, Scientific evidence shows that highly sensitive people fall into the nature place. Confirms that parents do not cause their children to be highly sensitive by the way they raised them.

If you are highly sensitive person you think more about decisions and actions, and you processing deeply as a natural outcome. You also fill your feelings after deeply and intensely. In some ways, having the genetic disposition and almost like having a super power. How did you see the people are capable of being more thoughtful and can feel empathy deeply.

Specialists and In childhood emotional neglect ask the question: Are high sensitive people shaped differently by emotionally neglectful parenting Non-highly sensitive people? What happens when emotional sensitive child grows into a family that discounts, ignores, or judge is a child’s emotions? And how do you those effects play out throughout the child life time

Based on hundreds of emotionally neglected adults, Children and adults who are highly sensitive are indeed affected differently. Childhood emotional neglect has affected the child who is I highly sensitive person differently than those who are not highly sensitive.

The Emotionally Neglectful Family

I am emotional need to collect a child grows up experiencing a deep feeling of being alone, even if surrounded by family. They experience their emotions being ignored or unwanted, perhaps at times even thwarted or dismissed by their parents or caretakers.Yes probably unspoken message may be delivered silently, I simply not being asked often enough.

Is anything wrong?

What would you like?

Do you need something?

What’s your preference?

Do you want to talk about what/how you’re feeling?

How can I help you?

If the emotionally neglectful home, It isn’t what your parents used to you, but what they don’t do for you when you need them to help you understand something you don’t yet know how to process your own feelings.

They need the validation and responses to those feelings. They need someone there for them, and they need someone to listen to them. They especially need someone to accept their feelings without criticism, discard, or judgment.

When as a child, Your parents don’t respond you’re feeling I need enough, it is quite confusing. Two others, your family and they look normal in every way. But you feel an unnamed indifference on a feeling level outsiders will never see.

Three damaging lessons the highly sensitive person learn from childhood emotional neglect:

1. Your feelings are a useless burden. They just don’t matter.

2.Your wishes and needs are not important.

3. Help is rarely an option.

The Highly Sensitive Child And The Emotionally Neglectful Family

The child who is a highly sensitive person has special sensitivity right from birth. As deep thinkers and feelers, You’re nature is thoughtfully and emotionally responsive, They are more overwhelmed by external stimulation than most. How do you sensitive people also have greater emotional reactions and more empathy for others.

Imagine what it’s like to be a deeply thoughtful child with intense feelings growing up in a family that doesn’t understand this powerful force within you. Your feelings are ignored and discouraged.

Instead of seeing you as thoughtful, you might be considered a week and perhaps slow, Simply because it takes you longer to process feelings and interactions with others. It may seem as if the family around you operate I am much different level, almost as if they live on a different plane than you. They don’t get you and you don’t get them.

So, what can you do with your feelings of frustration and pain? How do you process and function with your deeply felt anger, sadness, hurt, or confusion held tightly inside?

Many adults who are highly sensitive have heard over and over again from their parents and siblings:

  • You’re too emotional
  • Stop being such a drama queen.
  • Grow up already.
  • Stop acting like it’s the end of the world.
  • You’re Such a baby
  • Why are you so slow?

Some highly sensitive people are chided or derided by their families, even laughed out or bullied because of their sensitive natures at home and at school by schoolmates and teachers. They might be called weak, slow, or dreamers all due to their deep in our lives.

Your families most likely are not aware of the importance of their emotions and expressing their feelings. Most are so uncomfortable with emotions that emanate with you and their family structure that they passively or actively discouraged expressing any feelings.

But what if one member of the family exhibit deep your mouth and then those of their siblings and parents? How old are they learn that the expression of deep feelings is a valuable asset And that learning to understand and express Wrong feelings will help them to grow into a more balanced and mature human being? Where can they turn for help with their unexpressed feelings?

And the emotionally neglectful family, How do you sensitive person learns that they’re overly emotional. They don’t know that their emotions are personal expression of who they are. Instead, they learn that they are different, damaged, weak, and wrong. They will probably grow up feeling, deep inside, a sense of shame about who they really are. They’re super power not only has been diminished but also, perhaps, it’s a source of their secret shame.

There Is Help And Hope

Highly sensitive people can get help if they want, Learn more about emotional neglect you grew up with, and understand how it impacted your group with the silent messages you received.

It is imperative to begin to understand, except, and heal your childhood emotional neglect so that your how do you sensitive person qualities can begin to shine. Your intense emotional energy change in power you when you value it. And you’re deep processing abilities willBe a great advantage in your healing process.

Being treated different in your childhood doesn’t need to keep you set apart for life. When you begin healing from the emotional neglect that you have received then you will be able to finally celebrate your sensitivity and depth, and all else that makes you powerful and unique.

Building Your House On Solid Ground

Unless the Lord builds your house, those who build it will labor in vain.

In the parable of the two builders (Matthew 7:24-27), Jesus teaches the importance of building your house on solid ground. We’re all building our lives (our houses) on something. When everything is going well and life is great, a weak or shaky foundation won’t reveal itself. But how often is everything going great? In the real world, stress, anxiety, problems, and struggles come at us almost daily if not hourly. Those are the times when the winds are howling and the rain is beating down on our houses. Those are the times when we will become keenly aware of how firm and sure our foundation is – or isn’t. So, how can we learn how to build our lives on solid ground, let’s look at Matthew 7.

In this passage Jesus states that those who hear His words and do them are wise builders. They have built their homes on rock solid foundations. The winds howl, the rains come – even a flood comes – but the house stands firm. Those who hear His words, but fail to live by them are foolish builders. They may build the grandest of houses, but they sit on a shaky foundation. Places that get more than their share fair of severe weather, with hurricanes, tropical storms. After these storms. Some times people houses in the neighborhoods look fine while others are nearly destroyed. Let’s flash Jesus’s home-building analogy out a bit.

What Is This House We’re Building?

The “house” we are building is a metaphor for our whole lives. It represents our faith, our job, our relationships, our health, etc… Notice the entire house must rest on a solid foundation, not just a few parts. It’s very easy for us to compartmentalize our lives without even being aware of it. Instead of a whole, our lives look more like colorful pie charts with hard lines dividing the sections.

We may go to church on Sunday’s or even participate in a weekly Bible study or prayer meeting. A daily quiet time of study and prayer is part of our routine. We feel like that “slice of our pie” is strong. We’ve checked the boxes, we are doing fine there. And then we consciously or unconsciously leave Jesus in His pie slice. We move on to our job slice, our parenting slice, or our recreational slice, and leave our faith completely out. It’s as though we don’t think Jesus has anything to do with those areas. But He has everything to do with them.

What’s Threatening Our House?

Let’s look back Matthew 7:24-27 – Jesus mentions three threats to our houses: rains, floods, and winds. What might these things look like in our every day lives?

Rain can vary greatly- they can be a foggy drizzle that sucks the joy out of our day. They can be light – we may need an umbrella, but we can still go about our business. Or they can be downpours that we can’t even see through, complete with terrifying thunder and lightning. Taken together these are the everyday troubles of life. Some troubles are small, persistent and annoying. Some are more troublesome. And some storms are swift, unexpected and overwhelming.

Floods are obviously times when an all-out life threatening disaster is coming at us, a catastrophic illness, the death of a loved one, a divorce, a job loss, financial ruin. We are in real danger of being swept off our feet and drowned.

Winds I see as “words.” Words have great power to either build up or tear down. The words that beat against our houses are things like thoughtless remarks from a friend, a harsh rebuke from a boss, a heartless, cowardly attack by a internet troll. Or maybe worst of all, the negative, defeating self-talk we subject ourselves to all day long.

Jesus tells us that hearing and doing His words will empower us to withstand these forces. He promises that our houses will not fall. I like what it says in Luke 6:48, not only will our houses not be destroyed, they won’t even be shaken . Now that’s a firm foundation.

He is like a man building a house who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock.

Luke 6:48

If Faith Just Part Of Our Life Or Something Else?

Back to the “piece of our pie“ analogy. Faith is not a “slice of our pie” or just a part of our lives. Faith is the key, foundational element in our lives. If we think about it like a real pie. It’s like the top and bottom crust. No matter what you fill a pie with or how you bake it, as lousy crust makes a lousy pie.

Nowadays it’s easy to skimp on piecrust and many people take this route. Most people believe the lie that homemade piecrust is “too hard” and “not worth the effort.“ They use whisper-thin frozen crusts that deliver all the floor and mouthfeel of a cardboard box. Or they use refrigerated crust so full of weird stuff that it tastes like a plastic bag it came in. They put in a lot of effort into making a pie that will never be as delicious as it could be

Similarly, many people believe that lie that growing up and maturing in faith is “too hard” or “ not worth the effort.” It’s just for people who are in professional ministry. Or maybe the lie you are belies that the Bible is only relevant to certain areas of your life. Or It does not apply to the “real world,” nitty-gritty everyday stuff. And this you are building a life that isn’t really all it could be.

Few people know that the book of Psalms was written for every problem or trial we will to go through in our lives today. Not only that it teaches us how to ask God to help us through it. Which is the pie crust of life.

The truth is, however, that with the right recipe and a little practice, pie crust is absolutely a skill anyone can do and oh so worth the effort. It takes practice, effort, and good teachers to help you along the way. And as Matthew 7:24-27 reminds us it’s the difference between a life that stands and one that collapses in on itself. There is no comparison between a life founded on the Word of God and a life foundering without it.

So Where Does Faith Fit Into Our Lives?

A solid home needs a firm, found foundation. Likewise, a good pie, and beautiful pie, a truly delicious pie is a sturdy, well-made crust. You have to make sure the edges are tightly rolled together and crimp shut, sealing everything else securely inside. If you don’t, you’re feeling will boil over and feel your home with the delightful smell of burning sugar. If there’s one sound you don’t want to hear what you were baking it’s the smoke alarm. And while the edges need to be crimped tight, you also need to cut a few openings in the top to “let off steam.” If you don’t, the pressure will build up inside your pie and explode.

Our faith is not a slice or section of our lives. It’s what undergirds and supports our entire existence. Bitch what tightly surrounds and safely contains our whole selves. And in times of pressure, it’s a thing which we can escape, let off steam, and “keep it all together.” Our faith is the framework through which we show the world what is delightful, delicious, and fruitful inside of us. Without it, We’re an okey-gooey mess just waiting to boil over and set off the smoke alarm.

Are you building your life on a solid foundation? A life worth living? Are you baking a pie worth eating? The foundations of your “real” homes need constant checking and occasional repairs to ensure our homes are secure. Likewise, our spiritual foundation needs vigilant attention. We need to daily fortifying and strengthening it with time in the Word and prayer – not just reading and learning, but applying as well (Be doers of the word). And occasionally we have to step back and see if anything has shifted – If our house has started to slide off permits from foundation. A little cracks of insecurity, anxiety, bitterness, or anger showing? Are we leaning towards things we shouldn’t?

Matthew 7:24-27 Encourages us to build our lives on the word of God, it’s a foundation that will never change, never a give way and never let us down If we take good care of it.