“Because he loves Me, I will deliver him; because he knows My name, I will protect him.” (Psalm 91:14)

God always delivers. That’s His nature. But God doesn’t always deliver on us in the way we expect or when we hope the answer will come. When we ask Him to deliver us from sickness, a conflict, or any other difficulty in our lives, we need to avoid demanding that He answer the way we want Him to. If we demand a certain answer, we set ourselves up for disappointment, and if disappointment isn’t arrested, it will soon lead to discouragement.

The mark of true faith is steadfast trust in God when we don’t see what He’s doing or how He’s doing it. In spite of what we see with our physical eyes, we cling to the truth that God’s purposes, ways, and timing are higher than our ways, as “the heavens are higher than the earth” ( Isaiah 55:9). With that kind of faith, God sets us “on high” even in the middle of our trouble. We aren’t oblivious to our problems but we hang on tightly to God through thick and thin with the confidence that sooner or later in one way or another He will deliver us.

We learn some of life’s lessons only by taking the path through life’s valleys. It would be great if we could learn all the important lessons on the mountaintops, but we don’t. Valleys are part of the path for every believer. When we’re there, we can be sure that we have a Guide we can trust and that the path will eventually lead us to higher ground.