The Day of Trouble
July 26, 2023
It is said that the two things we can count on in life are death and taxes. Unfortunately, the list isn’t exhaustive. There is another thing we can count on: trouble. On the other side of every mountain top experience is the valley of the shadow of death, the valley of trouble. It’s unavoidable. Have you been there recently? I have.
Our own mistakes, failures, and sins can lead us into the valley. Moreover, family strife, problems at work, economic downturns, health issues, loss of a loved one, marital disputes, and much more can quickly plunge us into the valley of trouble. Signs of the valley include fear, depression, anxiety, stress, anger, grief, and hopelessness. Aren’t they all too familiar?
If you are in the valley long enough, these emotions are often replaced with such feelings as resentment, hate, unforgiveness, and bitterness. The valley of trouble can make or break a person. Where is God in the valley? Why does it seem that He is nowhere to be found? You call out to Him, and you pray fervently, but nothing seems to help. Why is that? Maybe God doesn’t reside in the valley. Is our God only to be found in the mountains? When we sin, perhaps the valley of trouble is God’s chastisement. Sometimes we find ourselves in the valley through no fault of our own. The valley is a confusing place. Is there a purpose to all this trouble, a purpose that can be understood?
How do we make sense of it? More importantly, how do we get out of the valley of trouble? What is the formula? Let me share with you what I have learned while I was roaming in the valley.
“Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay thy vows to the most High: and call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” KJV, Psalm 50:14-15, emphasis added.
Remember the story of Israel. What was the outcome of all their grumbling and complaining? God destroyed that entire generation, didn’t He? There is no worse sin than this because it openly declares that God is a liar and His word cannot be trusted. Yet, how many professing Christians take lightly offending God this way? They constantly worry, whine, and complain, and wear it as a badge of honor. What blindness is this? How Israel mishandled “the day of trouble” serves as a lesson for us all.
The day of trouble can truly serve as a gateway to pleasing God at the highest level. Everything good comes from trusting God, and it is the only way to truly please Him. We are saved by grace through faith—meaning we are saved by trusting God and believing in His promises. All good things originate from trusting God. The Bible states, “that without faith it is impossible to please God.” Trusting God when trouble overwhelms us means that faith in God gives us a way through it.
We are enjoined, by the Psalmist, to offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Giving thanks, when everything is going well, is not difficult; it is no sacrifice. But offering thanksgiving to God when we are in the valley of trouble, especially when we are in the valley through no fault of our own, is very difficult and challenging. It seems to go against everything in our being. We feel like we are being assaulted, and it is hard to be thankful for that. It is just then that being grateful to God is a very real sacrifice on our part. I recommend that you offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving for the trouble and the problem. Scripture also tells us that in everything we should give thanks. Some Christians quickly add that we are not told to be thankful for everything, but in everything. Maybe the more profound spiritual truth is that we should be grateful for everything. No matter how bad it gets, it is most often true that we are treated better than we deserve. When we offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving, when we are in the valley of trouble, God will bring us through the valley of the shadow of death to the mountain top experience of consciously knowing that we are pleasing God. That is how to get out of the valley of trouble.
I wrote this article on October 14, 2002, but my valley experience started months before I wrote this. As a nation, we had just observed the first anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York. The entire country had entered the valley of trouble on September 11, 2001. A few thousand souls died as a result of this attack on the United States. Families were devastated. Lives were torn apart. Many businesses around that nation also suffered a great deal during this time, and as a result, there was much turmoil all across this nation. It was a difficult time millions of people.
Many Christians prayed that this attack on our country would call the nation back to God and Biblical morality. The spiritual fervor was short-lived, and things went back to normal. By that I mean, our country continued to move away from our Christian foundation. 9-11 was not enough of a wake-up call. It didn’t take long for us to fall asleep again.
Our nation got another wake-up call in 2008, when we entered the Great Recession. That wake-up call was mainly unheeded as well. How many people changed their lives and started living righteously? How many found God in the valley of trouble? I have no idea. But overall, it seems that very little improved, and our national slide to Gomorrah continued.
The next major wake-up call occurred in 2020, 19 years after the initial national wake-up call, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world, plunging us into yet another challenging period. This was another wake-up call. However, the moral climate of our nation continues to decline rather than improve. As a country, we keep abandoning our Christian moral foundations. It seems that these wake-up calls are not being taken seriously. Historically, when nations ignore God’s gracious wake-up calls, He often responds by increasing their frequency and intensity. If these warnings are still ignored, final destruction may be near. Sadly, history shows that we often fail to learn anything from it.
As individuals, we sometimes find ourselves in the valley of trouble for our sinful actions. The same applies to nations. National sins and individual sins will bring us trouble from God. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows that he shall also reap. Consider “the day of trouble” as His wake-up call and repent before it is too late. And if the day of trouble is not a result of your sin, then praise God through it all and trust Him to deliver you according to His promise.
I believe in the power of prayer and the lovingkindness of God. I believe in God for the impossible. It sure seems like our nation has refused God one too many times, and that, humanly speaking, we have drifted so far away from God that we can’t return. I am believing God for the impossible.
If we humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways, He will hear us. He will forgive us and heal our land—if we have not already gone beyond the day of grace. When things seem the most hopeless, like today, that is when we need to remember that our God is the only source of strength that can meet the challenges we face. Do not trust in man. Trust in God. Join me in calling on God to come down and deliver us once again.
