THE VALLEY OF DECISION

Joel 3:14  "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision."

Most decisions, and I believe the lasting decisions come from the valley of one's life.  Many people make a real decision to call out to the Lord with their whole heart while in a valley, a deep, dark, soul-wrenching valley.  So many know the Lord, but not intimately.  They have been raised in church, consider themselves to be a Christian and go to church every Sunday.  It is the way they were raised, it is what they have always done, and so this is what they do.  They also go to work everyday, they also bowl or play golf each week, have their hair done weekly, have lunch with friends, and probably have a night they visit with family.  This is done without fail, each week, each month, each year.  This is what is called a routine.  This is their life, calenderized, so nothing changes, can't leave anything out, day in, day out.  Routine.

If your life is on a schedule that is the same week after week, what happens when the Lord wants to interrupt this with a plan He has made for you.  What do you do when the Lord injects His wishes for you to spend some time with Him.  Perhaps go to a special night of worship or fellowship that He has arranged just for you?  Do you know the Lord so desires to spend time with you, He will orchestrate a special night just to have you attend, so He can have some real time with you.  As a friend has said so many times, the Lord has known from before you were born that you would be in a certain seat, on a certain night, in a certain church, right where He wanted to put you, so you would hear just the words He wanted you to hear, words that would draw you into His presence, so He could woo you to Himself.  He will take this time, through this speaker, or musician, to make you feel so lost in yourself, so alone, so desperate for His company that you will cry out to Him.  You will have such a hunger in  you that you will begin to cry out words of worship and praise to Him, to give Him deep, heartfelt, truthful worship.  You will forget who you are, what you had planned for the moment you left the service, as you only set aside so much time to be here as you had your routine to keep.  But you can't leave, you can't do anything but weep and worship the Lord.  Then the service is over, and you are spent, physically and emotionally spent.  You have never had such a reaction in church before, you don't understand what happened; all you know is that it left you feeling so satisfied, so in love with the Lord.  You know in your heart that the Lord was there, that He held you in His arms, that His love is real.  You are invited to return tomorrow night for another night's service.

You go home, too emotionally drained to do what you had planned.  And then you see the calendar, with it's filled spaces of this event, this activity, tomorrow night is full.  You begin to sink into your routine mode, the thoughts in your mind taking over, you have this to do, you have that.  You begin to sink deep into dispair.  You cannot understand why you are feeling so low.  It is your spirit.  Your mind is taking control, once again, silencing your spirit that is telling you, "tomorrow night, there is another night you can worship the Lord, that you can go into His presence again, be with Him". 

The valley of decision. What will you do.  Will you stiffle the beautiful Holy Spirit within you, remember Him?  The sweet Holy Spirit that the Lord sent to dwell in you, comfort you, guide you, lead you into His presence.  Will you stiffle the urging of God's Spirit drawing you back to the service, back to His presence, so you can keep up the routine that is expected of you, the world's schedule, or will you get off that fast track to misery and dispair and follow the leading of the Spirit. 

The Lord will not decide for you; it is your choice.  You can probably ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit until one day you will truly be desperate for the Lord, and then He will, of course, welcome you with His open arms of love.  He won't turn you away.  But you will realize, when you completely let Him engulf you in His loving arms, showering you with His blessings of mercy, grace and joy, His perfect peace; you will realize how much you have missed, what times like these you have wasted, thrown away, with the wrong decision; with delaying the decision to be with the Lord,

My Father, my God, thank You for drawing me to You so long it seems now, but I know it was only not quite two years ago I was in the valley of decision.  I knew I was a Christian, but I had my Christian routine, so much to do, so little time.  But You did not stop until You sat me in a service, told me I was home, and held me as I made my decision to come out of the valley and up on the mountain with You.  This 3rd day of October, I am praising You with my whole heart knowing what a life you have given me; what rewards there has been since my decision was made to follow only You; not church, not people, but only YOU, my Lord God, only YOU.