Overwhelming sorrow engulfed my wife and me as we stood by the bedside of our youngest son, who was dying from the ravages of pneumonia. However, this walk through the valley of the shadow of death was not a new experience for us because we had lost another son several years earlier. So where was God? 

Some people think God’s presence is limited to certain places. When the Israelites defeated the Syrian army in the hills of Samaria, the servants of King Benhadad advised him to fight their enemy in the valleys instead of in the hills. They believed that the Israelite’s God was only a god of the hills. 

Is our God not a God of the valleys? Is our faith strong enough not only to weather the trials of life but also to grow closer to our Lord through them? Do we really believe that He is loving, kind, and compassionate regardless of what happens? Or does our faith in His goodness depend on the circumstances and emotions of the moment? 

“His compassions fail not. They are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23). “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him” (Psalm 103:13). “Blessed be God . . . the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). From personal experience, I can testify that these words of God are not empty or vain. He graciously works in our hearts through His Word, His children, and His Spirit to comfort, encourage, and guide us through the adversities of life. This is irrefutable evidence that He is truly a God of the valleys as well as of the mountains. 

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.  Job 13:15

~ Pete Lewis