“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Over the last month I have been reading a biography on Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn. For those who are not familiar, Elisabeth was a missionary with her husband, Jim, in Ecuador. Her husband was killed while trying to minister to an unreached, notoriously violent tribe. She later went and lived among the same tribe, sharing the gospel with them for the first time. After living two years back with the tribe that killed her husband and feeling like she had not fully completed the work she set out to do, Elizabeth felt the Lord calling her back to the states. Vaughn drew the following conclusion about Elisabeth in this season:
“She realized that on a subconscious level, perhaps she had thought that obedience to Christ would mean following Him to some destination- like a thatched hut in the jungle- and then staying there. Perhaps she’s assumed that obedience in ministry meant following Jesus to an endpoint where one would stay put, and all would flourish. Now she realized, yet again, that a life of obedience never really comes in for a landing so to speak. ‘He leads us right on, right through, right up to the threshold of Heaven. He does not say to us ever ‘Here it is.’ He says only, Here am I. Fear not.”’
Psalm 23 follows a similar theme in that life is not stagnant, rather it is a path to be traveled. If you reread vs. 4, you will notice the sheep still has to walk through the darkest valley. It doesn’t say “even though I walk through the darkest valley, I cast my wish and you rescued me.” Nor in that verse does it say the shepherd removed the sheep from his enemies. Rather, the shepherd protects the sheep through the hardship (dark valley) and protects the sheep as the sheep does life alongside its enemy. An obsession with deliverance or the perfect outcome prohibits us from seeing His work in the present.
We must understand what the Lord has promised to us. If we confuse the idea of protection with eliminating problems, we will feel like God is always failing us. He has not promised us earthly deliverance from all our problems. He has promised us His presence and the more we learn of His loving and faithful character, the more we will come to believe that this is more than enough.
Anne
Paid subscribers keep scrolling for this week’s devotional and coloring sheet