“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God”   2Cor 1:3-4. 

Death Valley Promises exists as an outreach through my testimony of God’s faithfulness; despite my ALS (Lou Gehrigs) diagnosis in 1997. I pray that through devotional thoughts, journal and other various entries the Holy Spirit will witness to help others who are going through  adversities that seem hopeless and insurmountable. God will always provides a way to pass through your valley (2 Pet 1:4;1Cor 10:13).

In Psalm 84:5-7, the writer says, “blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Passing through the Valley of Weeping (Baca), they make it a place of springs; the early rain also fills (the pools) with blessings. They go from strength to strength (increasing in victorious power); each of them appears before God in Zion.”

God does not promise that the highway to victory and blessing in your valley will be easy or fast. But He does promise a blessing to anyone whose strength and heart trust in Him, for they will pass through their valley of weeping going from weakness and loss to true strength and victory.

In Exodus 15:23-27, after passing through the Red Sea then traveling three days in the wilderness without water, God brought the children of Israel to the bitter waters of Marah for their first test, to see if they would trust Him to provide for them. Instead they murmured and complained to Moses who then cried to the Lord. God showed Moses a tree, which represents the Cross, and told him to throw it into the bitter water to make it sweet. If we are going to make it through our wilderness we have to learn how to turn our bitterness into sweet. Trials are opportunities for us to choose the provision of the Cross rather than to become bitter.

God loves you, that’s why He paid the perfect sacrifice of his Son on the Cross. When we choose the Cross we are choosing Christ’s resurrection life, acknowledging that any human effort can never merit the work Christ accomplished on the Cross reconciling man to God. An abundant and exchanged life comes when there is a sacrifice. When you offer up to God a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for your trial, He will turn your sorrow into joy, give you the oil of joy for mourning, and the the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. We trust and believe God has a destined plan to work in your life!

“To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:3