Do you thank God for your mountains and valleys?
Do you thank God for your mountains and valleys?
The dictionary defines the word THANKS is an expression of gratitude. We often use this word in response to random acts of kindness, a gesture of love, things we have received or done by someone graciously for us or on behalf of us. Sometimes we acknowledge it and sometimes we don’t!
The Bible says in Psalms 9:1 as-“I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” Psalmist often makes it a point that he took every initiative in acknowledging the deeds of God. So it is important to give thanks to God for all the wonderful things that he has done in our lives too.
However, one verse in the Bible caught me off-guard. Philippines 4: 6 says- “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” I couldn’t understand this verse because a lot of questions popped into my mind!
What happens when we go through the storms of life, the turbulence of sufferings, waves of sicknesses, commotions in life etc... How can I thank God in the middle of the storm? How can I praise him in the valleys? How can God expect praises during my tough times? Why is he so selfish & mean to me? Have you ever thought this way? Then you are not alone in this world! Let me answer you by giving you my life experience!
In September 2016, while I was getting ready for work, my bike gave a starting trouble. Initially, I thought, I will take it to a mechanic and fix it by spending few bucks. However, after service check, I came to know it is a problem that won’t get settled less than few thousands! Since it was in the middle of the month, my resources got over, I took the bike back from the service station and started going to the office with that troubled bike. Twas so embarrassing at times, when I kick my bike in front my student's cos it won’t start.
Two days later, my laptop started getting to shut while I was doing work. It continued throughout the day and the service engineer gave his final verdict by asking me to replace the battery which will cost me another 4-6 thousand rupees. This came to me as a second blow in that week along with my bike battery replacement. Since a lot of office work started to pile up and I was so frustrated.
Immediately after that week, I started getting fever only in the evenings. The fever remained anywhere near 102-103degree and it weakened my body. So I went to the lab for a blood test and found it was Dengue positive. Initially, I thought, fluids will bring down the fever and didn’t give much attention to it. This was the third blow in the month of September.
Here I am in a place away from my home with my wife who doesn’t know the local language neither has cash on hand to tackle the hospital needs. However, when my blood platelets count dropped under 40,000 & when blood started to ooze through my nostrils, hospitalization became mandatory.
After I was admitted to the hospital, my treatment began at night. It was at 11 pm while I was in my bed reading my text messages, my vision became a little blurry and I was slowly starting to lose my eyesight. My vision faded so badly that I couldn’t see even my wife who was sitting just a few feet away. I began to panic and started calling my wife and the nurses for help. The chief doctor came from ICU started checking my eyes for internal bleeding and wanting to do immediate scanning of my eyes. To the shock of our lives, we came to know that the ophthalmologist was on leave that day.
On one end, my heart was broken into pieces of losing my eyesight and live a life of a blind man and on the other, my wife was crying seeing her husband losing eyesight before her eyes. Lost and lonely in the hospital with no one beside to take the situation under control. I was frustrated and infuriated by the way life was taking twist and turns. At one point I literally asked myself how on earth this season will pass by. How will I survive this storm?
A gentle and a calm presence descended to that room. I remembered this song “through it all” which was very close to my heart written by Ps.Andrae Crouch. I started reciting the lyrics of this song at 1 am in the hospital in a very gentle voice. The song says
In those 4days of hospitalization, I got back my eye-sight and starting to recover fast from the Dengue fever. My students, fellow colleagues, friends and many came to visit and blessed us with prayers and gave small financial blessings. By the time of discharge, we figured that we had sufficient money for the entire hospital needs, battery for laptop, battery for the bike, also for the medical needs. College administration granted me two weeks leave without deducting my salary and graciously accepted all my delayed work.
Are you are going through the storm today? If you are at a crossroad, standing clueless on how to go forward! If life has brought you down to the end of that thin line! I want to encourage and ask you to thank God for that. I have been through the storm on that day just to tell my readers who are reading today that GOD is sovereign and watching over you in the storms. Your problems are a setup for God to give you his blessings. Your storm is a platform for God to show his power and provision. So the question is DO YOU THANK GOD FOR YOUR STORMS AND VALLEYS?
Listen to this song!
Through it all- Guy Penrod
The Bible says in Psalms 9:1 as-“I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” Psalmist often makes it a point that he took every initiative in acknowledging the deeds of God. So it is important to give thanks to God for all the wonderful things that he has done in our lives too.
However, one verse in the Bible caught me off-guard. Philippines 4: 6 says- “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” I couldn’t understand this verse because a lot of questions popped into my mind!
What happens when we go through the storms of life, the turbulence of sufferings, waves of sicknesses, commotions in life etc... How can I thank God in the middle of the storm? How can I praise him in the valleys? How can God expect praises during my tough times? Why is he so selfish & mean to me? Have you ever thought this way? Then you are not alone in this world! Let me answer you by giving you my life experience!
In September 2016, while I was getting ready for work, my bike gave a starting trouble. Initially, I thought, I will take it to a mechanic and fix it by spending few bucks. However, after service check, I came to know it is a problem that won’t get settled less than few thousands! Since it was in the middle of the month, my resources got over, I took the bike back from the service station and started going to the office with that troubled bike. Twas so embarrassing at times, when I kick my bike in front my student's cos it won’t start.
Two days later, my laptop started getting to shut while I was doing work. It continued throughout the day and the service engineer gave his final verdict by asking me to replace the battery which will cost me another 4-6 thousand rupees. This came to me as a second blow in that week along with my bike battery replacement. Since a lot of office work started to pile up and I was so frustrated.
Immediately after that week, I started getting fever only in the evenings. The fever remained anywhere near 102-103degree and it weakened my body. So I went to the lab for a blood test and found it was Dengue positive. Initially, I thought, fluids will bring down the fever and didn’t give much attention to it. This was the third blow in the month of September.
Here I am in a place away from my home with my wife who doesn’t know the local language neither has cash on hand to tackle the hospital needs. However, when my blood platelets count dropped under 40,000 & when blood started to ooze through my nostrils, hospitalization became mandatory.
After I was admitted to the hospital, my treatment began at night. It was at 11 pm while I was in my bed reading my text messages, my vision became a little blurry and I was slowly starting to lose my eyesight. My vision faded so badly that I couldn’t see even my wife who was sitting just a few feet away. I began to panic and started calling my wife and the nurses for help. The chief doctor came from ICU started checking my eyes for internal bleeding and wanting to do immediate scanning of my eyes. To the shock of our lives, we came to know that the ophthalmologist was on leave that day.
On one end, my heart was broken into pieces of losing my eyesight and live a life of a blind man and on the other, my wife was crying seeing her husband losing eyesight before her eyes. Lost and lonely in the hospital with no one beside to take the situation under control. I was frustrated and infuriated by the way life was taking twist and turns. At one point I literally asked myself how on earth this season will pass by. How will I survive this storm?
A gentle and a calm presence descended to that room. I remembered this song “through it all” which was very close to my heart written by Ps.Andrae Crouch. I started reciting the lyrics of this song at 1 am in the hospital in a very gentle voice. The song says
I thank God for the mountains, I thank him for the valleys
I thank him for the storms he has brought me through
If I never had a problem, I wouldn't know that God could solve them
I would have never known what my faith in God could do?
Through it all, through it all- I learned to trust in Jesus
I have learned to trust in God
I learned to depend upon His word.
In those 4days of hospitalization, I got back my eye-sight and starting to recover fast from the Dengue fever. My students, fellow colleagues, friends and many came to visit and blessed us with prayers and gave small financial blessings. By the time of discharge, we figured that we had sufficient money for the entire hospital needs, battery for laptop, battery for the bike, also for the medical needs. College administration granted me two weeks leave without deducting my salary and graciously accepted all my delayed work.
Are you are going through the storm today? If you are at a crossroad, standing clueless on how to go forward! If life has brought you down to the end of that thin line! I want to encourage and ask you to thank God for that. I have been through the storm on that day just to tell my readers who are reading today that GOD is sovereign and watching over you in the storms. Your problems are a setup for God to give you his blessings. Your storm is a platform for God to show his power and provision. So the question is DO YOU THANK GOD FOR YOUR STORMS AND VALLEYS?
Listen to this song!
Through it all- Guy Penrod
Comments
Post a Comment