Mountaintops are wonderful. The air is clear, the view is wide, and for a moment everything feels easy. But nobody builds deep faith on a mountaintop. Faith is built in the valley, where the path is steep, the light is low, and God is the only sure guide.
Charles Stanley stated it plainly in Life Principle 29: We learn more in our valley experiences than on our mountaintops.
David knew that valley well. He wrote, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me (Psalm 23:4, KJV). Notice what David does not say. He does not say he avoids the valley, or that God removes it. He walks through it, and he walks through it with God beside him.
James gives the same hard and hopeful truth: My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience (James 1:2-3, KJV). Trials are not wasted time. They are training ground.
Here is how to walk your valley well:
1. Stay close instead of shutting down. When pain hits, the instinct is to pull away from God and from people. Do the opposite. Pray honestly, even if the prayer is short. Tell a trusted friend what is really going on. Valleys shrink when they are walked with others, and they grow darker when they are walked alone.
2. Ask what God is teaching, not only what God is fixing. It is natural to pray for a quick exit from the valley. It is wiser to also ask, Lord, what do you want me to learn here? Often the lesson is patience, humility, trust, or dependence, and that lesson becomes strength you will carry long after the valley ends.
3. Keep walking. A valley is a place to pass through, not a place to settle. Take the next faithful step, even if you cannot see the whole road. Make the phone call, have the hard conversation, read the next chapter, show up again tomorrow. Small obedience in a dark place is still obedience, and God honors it.
You may look back one day and realize the valley did not defeat you. It deepened you. The mountaintop gave you a view, but the valley gave you roots, wisdom, and a testimony that can help someone else keep walking.
Mountaintops give you the view, but valleys give you the roots.
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