Walking in the difficulties - Why? How? Until when?

There are seasons in our life when we can say that everything goes well, we can feel God's presence, we hear his voice clearly and we know what we should do and how. We really need these seasons in our life. I also have been in these kind of seasons and I desire to experience it again.

However, we often can get to be surprised when a difficulty is coming, when we find ourselves in the valley instead of the mountaintop. Not everything is okay then, problems are surrounding us: you don't know how you will pay the bills until the end of the month, you lose your workplace, a disease is diagnosed on you, a member of your family had an accident or he or she passed away...even if we see our everyday life: you don't wake up in time and you are late from school/work, one of your friends/family members has a bad day and he or she wreaks it on you, you have a conflict with someone etc. We are in these situations more often, aren't we?

When we are on the mountaintops, it is like when we do sport less and less, and our body starts to be weaker and weaker and it forgets what is like when it was strong and tough. In these seasons, God can show us a lot of things, but we usually don't make the most of it, we only enjoy the happiness of being on the mountaintops. And when the seasons of difficulties are suddenly coming, we forget what is like walking in the valleys.
We can jump down from the mountaintop, but we also can walk down. Which is better? If we walk down instead of jumping, it is more possible that we will arrive at the bottom without getting injured. When we are standing on the "life goes well" mountain, we indeed have task! If we want to stay strong in the trials, we have to work on our relationship with God and strengthen it! However, it is much easier to hear Him then, we also need to spend time with God.

Why? - The question is that why are we in the valleys much more often than on the mounaintops where the things are working so easily? Why do we have to go through much more difficulties and struggles instead of enjoying the beauty of the perfect world? As I wrote it before, at the status of "everything goes well", we easily can forget Who has taken us up to the mountain. Things are going well, but in our souls, we are getting weaker because we see that we don't need to work as hard to hear God.
On the other hand, when we cannot hear Him as clearly and the trials are just coming and coming, we really want to see God's plan, His will, we want to know what He wants to tell us. Like the iron under the pressure, our life also can be shaped much more effectively when it is under pressure.

When you hear someone, you don't need to do anything to hear that person.
But when you cannot hear someone, you need to lean closer to that person and focus on what he or she wants to tell you! - This is how our relationship works with God!

How? - "Okay, I understand that beside of the heights, a lot of difficulties will wait for me in my life. But what can I do in the valleys? How can I walk in the valleys?"
There are sufferings what we cannot decide to be part of our life or not, BUT we still can decide about how we can react to them. We decide about how we live beside the fact of sufferings. These seasons are the most difficult but the most fruitful seasons at the same time.

1. period: We don't understand God.
2. period: We still don't understand him.
3-4...x. period: We still don't know what God does and why, and how we could get to know it.
You can see how long and unsure is this season. But, what can we do at this time?

Can't you find God? - Search for Him!
Can't you hear God? - Lean closer to Him to hear his voice!
Don't you understand his will? - Work on to understand it by getting closer to Him: read His word, search for Him in your prayers.

Don't forget one thing: As you take your first step to God, He suddenly starts to take His running steps to you and He will not stop until you stop to get closer to Him!

Until when? - "Until when do I have to walk in the valley? I am getting close to give it up."
The answer for the "Until when?" question is totally under God's control. The timing is in His hand! How long does my suffering take? Until God sees that I need it! If it takes 2 days, it takes 2 days, if it takes 2 years, it takes 2 years, if it takes 20 years, it takes 20 years... It takes longer not because it makes God happier to see that we are suffering, but because it makes us to be living examples because our trust became stronger through the seasons of trials. When everything was in ruins, we knew that God was beside us. Although, we didn't feel Him, we believed that everything was in His hand.

Walking through valleys makes our life stronger, these seasons bring us closer to God. Here, on the Earth, God will always give the chance of coming closer to Him, and these opportunities will not necessarily stay steady on the mountaintops.
Stay strong in the season of valleys to see that God is God in the valleys and on the mountaintops as well!