K-J, I am sorry that I didn't answer this before now. The one thing that has always led me out of these valleys has been the hope of a risen savior. Whenever I would read the bible and hear of God's almighty power, I knew that He could do anything, nothing was to great for Him. But, why would He want to do anything for me, who was I to capture the attention of the Great I Am?
There was and is nothing I could ever do to make up for the times I walked without Him, and the times of my life that I was more interested in myself and the pleasures of sin than in seeking Him.
That's when Jesus comes to light, how He gave of Himself, humbled Himself, paid a debt He did not owe, and He did all this for each and every one of us. He is the reason and the way that we can be assured we have the attention of the Father. He would not have suffered and died for a show, but that we may draw closer to Him. There is a song that I love to join in at church, "I owed a debt I could not pay, He paid a debt He did not owe." The fact that He did not stay in the grave after paying that price with His own blood, but was risen, and took that love offering to the Fathers throne, and said, "It is finished." That is what has gotten me through those valleys. I cannot come to the throne of our Father on my own, but marked by the blood of our Savior, marked as one of His, I know that the Father will never disown us. How could He disown something that cost Him so much, we are loved even more, not because we are are worthy because of our deeds, but the price the One paid to make that mark on us. He felt the pain so we could be healed, He died so that we might live. The bible says that He has our name written in the palm of His hand, I take that as we each individually take on the identity of that scar where the nail pierced His hand. It is that nail scarred hand that has closed tightly around mine and led me through the darkest valleys.
