THEMES
Hope, Humility, Suffering, The Christian Life, Faith in God

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
2 Corinthians 1:3-5, 2 Corinthians 4:7-11, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Hebrews 12:6

Written based on a prayer in the devotional “The Valley of Vision” by Arthur Bennett, “In the Valley” strives in the same way to present a deep emotion and transparent passion that comes from a theological conviction steeped in Scripture.

The song speaks honestly about suffering, hardships and humility but not in the negative. It encourages us that it is God Himself that leads us into the valley, that our suffering comes from His hand, that our hardship is brought by our own Father. At first glance, how could that be of any encouragement to the Christian? Wouldn’t we expect our Father to provide comfort, safety, and everything good?

God’s own Words in Scripture teach us otherwise. In His Sovereignty, our Father uses His strange servant of suffering to afflict us, not for our destruction, but for our sanctification in Christ and the ultimate good purpose in Him. Suffering produces a disposition that brings us low so that we might look up to the Father for our strength to persevere. Such that, on the one hand, we receive His suffering, but on the other, His power to be in the valley. Such a perspective can only be found when we come to be fully satisfied in God for all that He is.

“In The Valley” is a fitting song to exhort God’s people to hope in Him, to inspire humility and to encourage each other in suffering. It fits an arrangement with a slow tempo and contemplative spirits.