The Winner's Choice

Psa 34:18
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Psa 34:19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

A Christian does his soul well if he would accept that troubles are the norm and not the exception. Yet there is a way to make the seasons in the valley seasons of joy.

Psa 84:5
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

Psa 84:6
Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.

Psa 84:7
They go from strength, to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

Joy in times of adversity is sustained by virtue of the grounding on which one's hopes are based. Hoping in God is not a downgrading of one's life vision, as what the world system and the Enemy would have you believe, as if it is the last alternative of the loser in his many attempts at fulfillment using methods that should've worked for a man made of nobler stuff. On the contrary, it is the response of the man who has weighed the alternatives and found them pathetic and wanting and has discovered for himself a pearl of great price, the value of which renders the options worthless as chaff.

Upon this solid rock of hope, the Christian finds even in the most arid of deserts, where there is loneliness, disappointment, and death, springs of comfort and delight issuing forth from the promise of God to deliver and transform. The valleys of God make men--men of joy, hope, and the power of a Christlike nature.