Are You Stumbling?

Do you feel that you’re not going to make it sometimes?

Do you feel that your trial is worse than anyone else’s?

Are you having it worse than you ever could have imagined?

If so, you could be travelling through ‘Baca‘.

I sympathize with anyone travelling through Baca, as I’ve travelled through it a few times and know how rough it is – very rough!

This valley is the complete opposite to the former, happy, care-free days in the lush valleys of ‘Heidi-land.’

The Valley of Baca in the Bible, is the route the Pilgrims had to travel through if they were to get to a longed-for destination. There was no other route other than through the barren, hot, rocky, and dangerous Valley of Baca. It would depend on how big a traveler’s ‘want’ was, if they were to get to arrive there. If their ‘want’ was big enough, they’d make it.

The Pilgrims journey through The Valley of Baca was because of what they longed to do most, which was to worship in Jerusalem. But those who made it through would only be those who’d kept on believing that it would be worth it.

But the tragedy is many don’t continue. Many drop out on the tough Baca road. Many ‘stumble’ and fail to ‘dust themselves off’ and keep going. Some excuses are… the road wasn’t ‘quite as easy as we thought it would be’, ‘It was a bit too hot for my liking’, ‘It wasn’t quite as ‘cool’ or ‘trendy’ as we’d thought. This is such a shame as the Valley of Baca is a route to somewhere special! And what a waste of a journey, just to give up nearing then end! Everyone knows that the last leg of a Marathon is the toughest.

We see envious images of climbers standing on the pinnacle of the highest of mountains looking as if they’d been dropped onto it by helicopter. But to get to such heights, and to behold such beauty they’d had to pass grueling endurance tests for a long time.

But make no mistake… The word ‘Baca’ literally means ‘weeping’. The Valley of Baca is a place of tears! And weep you will. Hurt you will. You will not only stumble, but will feel too upset to even want to keep going, because this Valley is like no other.

On route, a Pilgrim would see those dropping out, wondering if they would be the only one arriving to the craved-for destination! A journey through Baca could end up being lonely towards the end. But far better to be lonely than not make it at all!

There is a Scripture I love. It only has 5 words but it has done a lot for me…“And it came to pass”. “Passing THROUGH the valley of Baca“ showing that everything is temporary.

Weep as much as you need to weep. Cry to God as often as you need to. But keep your eye on the goal while doing so. The saying goes ‘if something is too good to be true, then it usually is‘. But this is not so in the case of a Pilgrim!

It’s not too good to be true that you WILL see that loved one again.

It’s not too good to be true, that your bespoke mansion is waiting for you to occupy, and the streets of pure gold waiting for you to walk on. Why isn’t it too good to be true? Because God doesn’t lie!

It’s not too good to be true, that at the end of the journey we will actually see the very face of God!

It’s not too good to be true that at the end of the journey we will see the nail prints in His hands.

Faith says ‘I won’t always weep‘.

Faith says ‘I will get through this‘.

Faith says, ‘I will have a perfect life after this one‘.

Faith says ‘I will have a new body one day!‘

Faith says ‘this journey is worth it to claim what He has promised me!’

Faith keeps it’s eye on the prize, “I press toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).

It doesn’t matter for whatever reason, that you are weeping or stumbling on suddenly finding yourself in this awful valley of tears. The important thing is – don’t STOP going! It isn’t the pace, or the stumbling, or the weeping, that will rob you of getting there to The Promised Land. It is the not wanting it enough to just keep on plodding on, “A righteous man falls seven times and rises again” (Proverbs 24:16).

It isn’t necessarily God who sends us through this valley of tears. A valley of weeping can just crop-up in life, as sin ruined how perfect life should have been. But in The Promised Land there is nothing to ruin anything ever again!

But even on a rough ‘Baca‘ experience, God can still faithfully refresh a Pilgrim on the way…

“How blessed is the person whose strength is in you. Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring” (Psalm 84:6).

“Unto Him who is able to keep you from STUMBLING“ (Jude 1:24).

God bless you, Christine.

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Copyright. Living Devotions. UK. 2020

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