His purpose it to teach us that when all other hope is gone that the Lord Himself is the hope of our lives
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When I was 18 years old, I experienced a period of extreme anxiety which lasted for 2 years. This incapacitated me in many ways causing me to lose time from work and feel emotionally and spiritually drained, useless, full of doubt and fear and totally exhausted most of the time. There were many days during this experience I thought I would never be able to feel peace and fearless, and close to the Lord ever again. But as the Lord always does, he never left me but instead gave me many precious promises, including this one from Hosea.
`But then I will win her back again (allure her) and will lead her into the desert (or wilderness) and speak tenderly to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the valley of trouble (Achor) into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt` (Hosea 2:14-15 NLT)
The verse assured me that sometimes the Lord leads us into desert times to both get our attention and to speak tenderly to us. At the time it can seem harsh to us and the desert (wilderness) is a place we don’t want to be, we fight it, we try and escape it and we complain to God about it, we certainly don’t welcome it! But through the words of Hosea (who understood periods of wilderness experiences for himself, and periods of seeing the restoration of the Lord through the experience of his wife Gomer), we learn that the wilderness is a place of transformation. God alone can make the valley of trouble (Achor) into a gateway of hope. And His purpose it to teach us that when all other hope is gone that the Lord Himself is the hope of our lives. It is a living, transforming, joy filled hope, that makes us not ashamed or disappointed, because it is based in Him and His eternal and fathomless love for us, and not on circumstance and situation.
Sometimes it is only being led into a wilderness time and space, and experiencing again the loving, transforming hope of the Lord, that we have the time and the space to again give ourselves totally to the Lord as we did when we first knew Him. The time when we realised, we had been freed from our sinful life and captivity. When the very awareness of who we were and what He did for us; dying on the cross to free us from sin and death; created such a desire to live so close to God and to listen for His every breath in our lives.
Reading and remembering this verse again was such a blessing and like meeting an old friend again. I recall how the Lord has taught me such a lot during this period of wilderness experiences in my life. But then there was a greater blessing still to come.
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`The plains of Sharon will again be filled with flocks for my people who have searched for me, and the Valley of Achor will be a place to pasture herds`.(NLT)
I was so thrilled by this verse I do not ever remember reading before. The Lord's promise to Israel and to us is that the valley of Achor (trouble) is not only a door of hope but through the goodness of God, and what we learn from being in the wilderness it will become a place to pasture herds. This spoke to me of the overwhelming love of God. That He would take the troubles and difficult experiences we go through both to give us hope and strengthen our faith and walk with the Lord, so that we can then share that hope and faith to pasture (feed and nurture) others. To show them in their valley of Achor (trouble) that God can both bring them through and be used mightily to feed and nurture others.
We know this is God's plan for us because Jesus confirms it in his encouraging and challenging words to Peter at the last supper.
`Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have prayed for you Simon that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again strengthen your bothers` (Luke 22:31-32 NLT)
They were all going to be sifted (we all go through difficult times and challenging experiences) but He said to Simon when you have repented and retuned to me and been restored (discovered that the valley of trouble is the door of hope) strengthen your brothers. In other words, feed my sheep, pasture my herds with what you have learned and experienced.
God never wastes anything, any experience we go through. Any time spent in the valley of Achor (trouble), being led into wilderness experiences, to grow closer to and become more dependent on the Lord is to be used to nurture and feed others. If we don’t, if we keep what we have learned to ourselves, if we are afraid to reach out to others and share our experiences, we do not fulfil all the Lord has ordained for us. Paul encourages us to do this in 1 Corinthians 1:3-5
`All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ the more God will shower us with this comfort through Christ` (NLT)
I am so grateful today that the Lord reminded me again in these difficult days we are going through that the Valley of Trouble (Achor) is truly a door of Hope and that Hope is then a gift we have to share with others going through Valleys of Trouble (Achor) The Lord's provision is truly eternal for each of our lives. Thank you Lord.
Author: Jan Pearson
May God bless and enrich your life
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