When the apostle Paul writes his second letter to the Corinthians, he describes his present situation using these words: pressed on every side; in constant danger of death; perplexed; suffering; dying; hunted down; troubles; knocked down; weary; we groan and sigh.
This was Paul’s valley of the shadow of death. Does it sound familiar? Have you been there?
Maybe you’re passing through your darkest valley right now. I don’t know how you got here – maybe you’re a bit bewildered about how you got here – but being here is scary. It’s not safe. How can you possibly step forward?
We walk by faith and not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7
This is what Paul says. He is confident that because of God, what lies ahead is not what he sees now. So he can keep going, even though his path is so narrow he’s picking his way along a ledge littered with stones, a yawning crevasse on one side and unmoving rock scraping him raw on the other.
For all of us, each step that we take in faith on that narrow cliff-edge causes our faith to grow. And as our faith grows, the path widens. It becomes smoother, easier, lighter. Our faith is the foundation, the bedrock, the path itself. It’s what lies beneath when we feel like the rug has been pulled out from underneath us.
Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for, but do not yet see, will actually happen. By faith, we believe that God is who He says He is. If we believe that, then we know that He will do what He says He will do. That nothing can stop Him from accomplishing His purposes. That He is more than able to protect what we’ve given to Him for safekeeping.
The only way for us to walk is by faith, even though the path is shrouded in darkness. Even though it’s unclear how things are going to turn out. Even though it’s hard to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
The path of faith always leads to hope. Because God is God. He can be trusted to keep His promises (Hebrews 10:23). And He says He will be with us in trouble. That His plans are not to harm us. That He will neither fail nor forsake us.
As we trust Him, shuffling our feet forward along that rocky ledge, God proves that He can be trusted, that He will never leave us or abandon us. We see that God is worthy of our confident assurance. So our legs stop trembling. Our steps grow more sure. Our path grows wider. And we can declare that something better than what we see now lies ahead. We will emerge from this valley of darkest shadows into His wonderful light.
“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed… That is why we never give up… For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.”
2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18