I Have Seen God in My Valleys and on My Mountains
Praise the Lord brethren.
I have seen God in my valleys and on my mountains. And honestly, it hasn’t been easy to remain strong through it all.
There have been moments of waiting, seasons of unanswered prayers, days of confusion, and times when my faith felt weak. Yet, through it all, God has been teaching me something beautiful about prayer, love, and what it truly means to walk with Him.
One promise I made to God a while ago was that I would remain faithful in prayer, whether my prayers were answered or not.
You see, there was a time when I prayed for certain things for so long, but nothing seemed to change. Gradually, discouragement crept in. I would stop praying, sometimes going days without speaking to God. I kept wondering: Is God really there? And if He is, why does He seem so absent? Does He hear me? Does He love me?
Perhaps some of you have been there, too.
You love God, but the waiting is exhausting. You believe in His promises, yet your circumstances seem to tell a different story. You pray, you hope, you wait, and sometimes you wonder whether any of it makes a difference.
But one day, right in the middle of my confusion, something shifted within me. I felt a conviction to serve God and remain faithful in prayer, not merely because I wanted Him to do something for me, but because He is God, and He is worthy of my love, trust, and devotion, regardless of the outcome.
And in that surrender, I encountered His love in a new way.
A deep love of God filled my heart. I began to see Him in everything. I experienced an inner peace and joy that circumstances could not easily take away. I stopped being so consumed by who loved me, who hated me, who stayed, and who walked away.
I began looking at my past with gratitude, my present with love, and my future through the eyes of hope and beautiful expectation.
I found strength I hadn’t known before. I developed a deeper intimacy with God, a genuine longing for prayer, and a desire to remain in His presence.
Even Eucharistic Adoration became more alive to me. I found myself longing to remain before Jesus, to sit with Him, to love Him, and simply to be with Him. My heart was learning to treasure His presence, not just His answers.
And then I began to understand something that changed my walk with God.
I had become so consumed by what I wanted God to do that I was missing the beauty of being with Him.
My prayers had often been centered on my needs, my unanswered requests, and the years I had spent waiting. I was so focused on the things I hoped to receive that I was overlooking the greatest gift of all: the invitation to know God, love Him, and walk closely with Him.
I am learning that prayer is not merely about getting answers. It is also about being transformed, learning to trust, surrendering our desires, and allowing Jesus to take His rightful place in our lives.
I am learning not to cling so tightly to my own plans that I leave no room for God’s will. I am learning to seek Him first, to trust His timing, and to let Him be enough even while I continue to hope and pray for the desires of my heart.
As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:33:
“Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God’s saving justice, and all these other things will be given you as well.”
And when I think of how deeply and completely God knows us, I am reminded of Psalm 139. Even before we find the words to express our pain, He knows us. Even in the places where we feel forgotten, He sees us. Even in our valleys, His presence is not beyond our reach.
I am still growing. I am still learning. I still have prayers waiting to be answered and desires I continue to place before the Lord. But I no longer want unanswered prayers to rob me of the joy of knowing Him.
I want to make prayer my daily bread, not just my last resort. I want to seek His face, not only His hand. I want to remain faithful in the waiting, not just celebrate Him when the answers come.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, can I ask you something?
Where are you, genuinely, in your walk with God?
What is keeping you awake at night? What burden have you carried for so long that it has begun to weaken your faith? What unanswered prayer has made you question God’s love, His presence, or His promises?
Bring it all to Him. You do not have to pretend to be strong before God. Tell Him your fears, your disappointments, your questions, and even your weariness. He already knows your heart.
But as you ask Him for what you need, do not forget to seek Him for who He is.
Do not let the pain of waiting make you abandon the place where your soul finds life. Do not allow unanswered prayers to convince you that you are unloved. And do not measure God’s faithfulness only by how quickly your circumstances change.
Sometimes, while we are waiting for God to change our situations, He is also doing a deeper work within us.
We are children of the living God, surrounded by His unfailing love! Let us arise in boldness, stand firm in faith, and persevere in prayer. Let nothing quench the fire of our intercession. When one of us grows weary, let another stand in the gap. Let us carry one another in prayer, encourage one another in love, and keep pointing one another back to Jesus.
We shall not grow weary, for the One we serve is faithful.
May we become people who pray not only because we need something from God, but because we have come to love the God to whom we pray.
May our prayer altars remain burning. May our faith remain steadfast. May our hearts learn to rest in His presence, even when the answers have not yet come.
And may we never forget that the greatest treasure is not simply what God can give us, but the privilege of knowing Him, walking with Him, and belonging to Him.