Sometimes the pathway to your promised land takes you down into the valley. You may even need to pitch your tent there sometimes until its precious lessons are learned…

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Sometimes the pathway to your promised land is going to take you down into the Valley. You may even need for a season to pitch your tent there, because there are precious lessons to be learned. We’re told that even Jesus in Hebrews chapter 5:8. We’re told that Jesus, though he were a son, yet learned the obedience by the things which he suffered. Can it really be any different for us, our momentary afflictions? That’s how how Paul described his affliction and the things he went through. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t call them momentary or light in any way. But even Paul’s afflictions, he said, could not be compared with those of our Lord. But for sure, wherever we’re at whatever challenges we’ve faced or are facing, there are no smooth promises found on the pages of the Holy book. There’s no get out clause, discount, ticket or special offer that exempts any one of us from challenge and setback. The Valley, I believe, is as much a part of our training as the mountain. We love those mountain peak moments, don’t we? Those are the ones that we put on our sales pages. Those are the ones that we brag about in our author bios.

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Yeah, the only place the Valley story comes in is where we want to kind of use it as a bed to build this kind of. But everything turned around and everything worked out. Wonderfully type story. But seriously, those Valley seasons, they can be rough. Sometimes the Valley is as much a part of our training as the mountain, like I say. And it was the same for Isaac, we’re told in Genesis 26:17. Isaac departed since we talked about that last time a little and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gehrar and Dwelt there. Now geography and history tell us that this Valley was actually a dry riverbed where the water would flow in the rainy season. The only problem was it was in the Negev, and the rainy season did not come very often. It was a rare thing for this not to be a dry place. And for us as Christians, for us as particularly Christian creatives entrepreneurs, there may come dry seasons that leave you with more hot, dusty questions than you have answers. Failures will fly in and consume your self confidence at times like the dry heat of the desert.

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And in those times, man, God’s voice can sometimes seem very silent. And we can be under the stars in the freezing cold nights, feeling uncovered, embarrassed and exposed, and our soul just naked to the ravages of doubt and self questioning. But the lessons that we can learn here, the lessons that they are here to be found and savoured, and in some ways, the waters that we draw from these times can be sweeter than any that we’ve tasted before. The thing is, they are beneath the surface. Testing times do indeed prove our character. And while our branches outwardly may look bare. Our roots of necessity are stretching deeper and deeper into the faithful soils of God’s love and his purposes. Again and again in this chapter, we witnessed Isaac and those of his household replying to the repeated challenges with resolute confidence. He said to himself, and we see it again and again. If I dig, I will drink again of God’s goodness. If I dig again, I will surely taste God’s goodness, and we find it here in the Valley. Even in the Valley they were digging. Genesis 26:19. Isaac’s servants digged in the Valley and found there a well of springing water.

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The Valley really doesn’t offer any easy bargains. You can either despair or you can dig. You can give up, or you can grab hold of a fresh and a deeper Grace that will carry you through the cross. I think the most amazing truths that we find in the Bible are the ones that are most contrary and most counter to reason. The cross was God’s means to free the world man’s most heinous crime. Satan’s most awful concoction was God’s purest love and genius at work. And all that the world and Satan threw at the one who hung there on the cross resulted in redemption for many. And your testings are as well. They’re working in you a far greater weight of glory, leading to a testimony that will not only liberate your creative voice to speak deeper and more resonant to your audience in the hearts of your hearers. In fact, it will sing more loudly than a Battalion of books or a Legion of libraries or a choir of voices because you’ve been there, people will hear. People will know that there is greater depth and substance behind these words than just cleverness. It’s not just that we throw a few words together as influencers, coaches, creators.

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What we make, what we write, what we put out to the world actually flows from the experiences that we’ve gone through. And we understand that the comfort where with we have been comforted with God, then uses that leverages, that to comfort and to strengthen and to encourage and bless others. I don’t really here want to make light of the angst that can come like a flood to crush us all, the discouragements that seek to hamper our steps, the prodding stick of pride that tries to convince us of our entitlement to only good and to lament the unfairness of it all. Seriously, the Valley is sometimes not a pretty place to stay. But here Isaac chose to pitch his tent and dig, knowing that there are streams, even in the desert places, if you dig long and deep enough to find them. Yes, my friends, the greatest gains are often made when we are stood still, when we’ve been forced into a Valley, when we’re standing in a dry season, when we’re wondering which way to turn and we stand and we say, God, I don’t know which way to go. I don’t know what to do.

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Everything doesn’t look the way I thought it would look at this point and we go deeper. We hear clearer when all of our other options are exhausted when the winds of yesterday are consumed with the questions of today we have opportunity to find Jesus in ways that we would never otherwise choose to know him and some of the sweetest waters are actually found and discovered in the bitterest circumstances. And so whatever Valley you are walking through today, whatever Valley you are facing, know this you can dig even in the Valley and there will be as with Isaac you will find a well of springing water.

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Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Hopefully it was a blessing to you if it was do please consider leaving a rating and a review on whatever platform you are listening on. I also would love to encourage you to cheque out my new book faithful creative. We’ve got a package of resources designed specifically to encourage you in your Christian creative core. You can cheque that out at faithfulcreativebook.com and if you choose to pick it up, use the promo code podcast for 50% off so you’ll get it for half price. Have a great rest of your day and God bless Jesus first everything else follows.