“And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” (1 Kings 20:28). When we have struggled and overcome and climbed up to the top of the hill and can finally see clearly in the glorious burst of sunlight, when our hard work has paid off and we are finding success in every aspect of our lives, when doing good and being good meet little to no resistance, it is easy to believe that God is real and He has the power to shape our lives and to bless and prosper us. But what about when we are down in the valleys, laboring in obscurity under the shadow of those hills of success and triumph, or worse yet, what about when we are in the pit, and are choking on the fumes of fire and brimstone and even hope seems to have abandoned us, and the very jaws of Hell are closing around us? Does God still exist then? Does He still have power over the shape of our lives? Of course He does. God is Lord over the hills and the valleys. He is there with us when we triumph and when we fail. If our hearts are turned to God in faith and prayer, then God doesn't care whether we are basking in the light on top of the hill, or groping in the dark at the bottom of the valley. Sometimes we wander down into the valley of our own accord and sometimes we get pushed off a cliff and break half our bones on the way down. If we think that God can't find us or help us when we have fallen on hard times, then we are as foolish as the Syrians who thought they could escape the wrath of God if only they fought the Israelites in the valleys instead of the hills. God is with us always. He loves and desires to help us just as much in the valleys as on the hills. If we are currently fighting tooth and nail and making almost zero progress, but still we believe, or at least we want to believe, that is enough for now. We will eventually claw our way out of this valley and make it up the hill again, but we have to understand this truth - God is not waiting for us at the top of the hill. He is with us in the valley, just as He will be with us on the Hill because He is going to make every step of that climb right by our side. We need to stop taking our successes or failures as evidence of God's presence or absence. Of course God weeps tears of sorrow when we fail and hates to see us suffer. He knows it's no fun slogging through hip deep filthy water, completely lost because we can't see where we're going, wishing for nothing more than that we could be plucked up and set upon a hill once more where we can finally breathe and rest and see the path that lies ahead. But God also weeps tears of joy when we finally find a way up and out of that ravine and are making real progress up the hill once more. If we are currently on a hill, I hope we get a nice long stretch of peace at the top, but I know that God will still love us and be by our sides if we get knocked off that hill. And if we are currently in a valley, or even a pit, I know that as we put our trust in the Lord, He will lead us out of the depths and back into the light.
