{"id":3010,"date":"2019-05-02T16:54:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T23:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?post_type=portfolio&p=3010"},"modified":"2019-05-02T16:54:22","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T23:54:22","slug":"three_things","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/three_things\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Things to Remember When You Walk through the Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor Rick Warren<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me<\/strong>\u201d (Psalm 23:4 NIV).<\/p>\n

You may not be in the valley of the shadow of death right now, but you may be in another valley. These are hard places on your journey, where it\u2019s easy to doubt or overlook God\u2019s goodness. But you can always trust that God walks through the valleys with you. And he\u2019s promised to bring you through to the other side.<\/p>\n

Psalm 23:4 says, \u201cEven though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me\u201d (NIV).<\/p>\n

Here are three truths worth remembering when you are in the valley:<\/p>\n

1. You are not alone; God is with you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The shadows in your life are the evidence of the presence of light. How do you deal with a shadow? You turn your back to the shadow and look at the light. Jesus said, \u201cI am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won\u2019t be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life\u201d (John 8:12 CEV).<\/p>\n

The Bible says God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. You need to stop focusing on the things that scare you: those bills, those fears, those worries, that stuff that keeps swirling around in your mind. Move your focus off your fears so you can focus on the Father.<\/p>\n

2. God has a good purpose for your valley.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

God cannot do evil. Even when you\u2019re facing problems, conflict, grief, fear, or failure, God is at work creating some good from your valley.<\/p>\n

Romans 5:3-5 says, \u201cWe rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God\u2019s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us\u201d (ESV).<\/p>\n

3. Remember: The reward will last forever.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You\u2019re going to be rewarded for remaining faithful to Christ in the valley of failure, in the valley of fear, in the valley of conflict, in the valley of grief, in the valley of brokenness, and in the valley of trouble. You\u2019ll be in heaven less than a minute before thinking, \u201cWhat was I thinking? Why did I complain so much? Why did I worry when I was going through those valleys? God was right there with me all the time, and he was good to me all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:17, \u201cFor our present troubles are small and won\u2019t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!\u201d (NLT).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":3012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-3010","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/3010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/3010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3010"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=3010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}