When we find ourselves in a valley it is easy to lose sight on JOY. I remember days when I would weep because I truly believed I would never be happy again. I thought I couldn’t experience joy while in the valley. Joy was only if you managed to survive the valley.

I am so thankful for God’s Word! It was while I was reading through the Psalms in my own dark valley,  that I discovered a very precious promise.

“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” – Psalms 16:11

After reading that verse over a few hundred times I began to realize I could experience joy no matter what I was going through in my life. Not just a little happiness,  but real,  FULL joy! Pleasures, too!

If you are waiting for life to “calm down” or “get better” to have that fullness of Joy, then you will never find Joy.

How do I find Joy while in a valley?

#1 Find God’s Presence.

If you don’t have a relationship with God,  start working on it.  Make reading your Bible and praying a matter of daily importance!

Make sure you are in a church that not only preaches the Word of God, but worships God! Sing your heart out during song service.

If we wait until we are “feeling better” or for our lives to “slow down” to commit to a real relationship with God, we will never have a relationship with God.

#2 Minister to others.

Find a way to minister in your church.  Join the nursery worker team.  Ask to help in Sunday school, join the choir,  go on visitation.  Ask your pastors wife where she might need an extra helping hand.

You can also minister outside of church. Pass out some gospel tracts while at the store or gas station.  Write get well cards to sick church members.  Make a meal for your neighbor who has been sick.

If we wait until our lives are “calmed down” to start ministering to others,  we never will minister to others.  (Notice what I’m doing here? )

#3 Be humble.

There is just something about those valley’s, though.  They can put you on your face and humble you.  God can reveal to you what you really are when you are in a valley.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”- Psalms 139:23‭-‬24

This verse should be our daily prayer.  When there is something (sin) between us and God, our relationship with Him suffers.

The more we focus on God and others and the less we focus on ourselves, the more we can find ourselves in the presence of God.

#4 Thank God for the valley.

God loves to hear us worship Him,  especially in our valley’s.  He loves to hear us thank Him for those hard times in our lives.  He wants to know that we trust Him even when the sky is so dark we can’t see the path right in front of us. If we keep holding His hand when we are at our weakest,  It is then we are strongest!

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9‭-‬10