The Valley of Baca

I am so tired of living in the past.

I was just rereading something I wrote in a private diary from over 3 years ago. The way God worked through a near disaster was awesome and only God could have worked it out.

The main theme in those three months of diary entries was that I must listen, I must hear and I must not act until I do.

The way God spoke to me at that time was miraculous and was only God. Only He could have thought of that particular way to get me to listen to what He was trying to teach me.

Not too long ago, I saw the lady that had delievered the message I needed to hear during that hard time. She had no idea that God had used her in such a wonderful way. I'll never forget the tears she and I cried when I shared with her about the message she gave me and what it did to change the outcome of a very very serious, life-changing event.

Even now as I think back on that time when I heard God's voice through a cassette tape she had insisted I listen to (not once...not twice...but three times)-- I long, I desire, I crave to hear His voice again.

Last night, a friend and I were talking about someone we both love so deeply. How this person had been given a REAL warning from God and yet they have chosen to thumb their nose at the warning.

I told my friend last night that I had been limiting God in answering the prayers I've been praying for this person. Teach them I would ask God, but don't let anything disasterous happen. Help them to learn without having to go through Hell to learn it. I told my friend last night, one of the hardest prayers for me to utter would be: whatever it takes to bring this person back in line with Your will...just do it, Lord. My friend shuttered over the phone. I told her that I have to let God be God and not limit Him to my limitations.

I still haven't gathered the courage to pray that prayer. I have walked through that Valley of Baca, of sorrow, of pain, of the unknown and of Hell...

but when I came to the mountainside....I was a different person... a little more purer... a little more pliable...a little more moldable. That's what I wish for this dear friend of mine. I want this person to know God's love...even if it means walking through the Valley of Baca. And my prayer is to let me be the one to help carry them through---and I'll weep right along with them.

"Happy are those who are strong in the Lord, who set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs, where pools of blessing collect after the rains! They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Zion." Psalm 84:5-7