“I will walk through the valley of the shadow of death but I will fear no evil for You are with me.” (NKJV)
This message is for someone who is walking through a season which feels like an unpleasant valley, but I have good news for you. You are not meant to stop here. Your story continues as you continue to walk, however painfully, through this valley, to the other side. Valleys are finite spaces and when you get to the end of one, you start to climb the mountain again. In more than thirty years in the people-helping business as a pastor and life coach, I have seen numerous people who find themselves in a difficult situation in life, and somehow, they camp in the valley when they were only meant to pass through it. The valley in Psalm 23 is a low place, but it is not a valley of death – it is a valley of the shadow of death. This means that it looks like the story is over, and as though death is knocking at the door; it looks like all is lost and the debt collectors are here, but it isn’t over until it’s over. God tells us this is just a shadow of what we fear. It is a situation we are walking through, and how we perceive it, and believe it to be will be how it turns out. The fruit we are expecting will be what we see! The key here is how the psalmist says “I will walk through the valley of the shadow of death but I will fear no evil”. There may be evil happening; there may be pressure building up and the lies of the enemy speaking daily. You may have just lost a loved one, but how can we respond? Job said: “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.” (Job 3:25). How we see our valley is going to influence our journey through it, and whether we move through it or pitch our tents there.
Yes, you do have this immense power in God, to walk to the other side and climb once more, or to stay there in the valley and make it your home. What am I saying friend? When things get rough, it is only natural that we experience fear, anxiety, some trepidation in our hearts, but are we going to let it stay there? No! God the Holy Spirit is reminding us today that fear can take us deeper into a troubling situation if we allow it to, and things happening before our eyes are not exactly what we think them to be. Science tells us that what we actually see of reality is just 0.05% of the whole situation. In other words, you and I are only seeing one tiny facet of any situation and there is so much more. Yes, you may be faced with an unwanted diagnosis, or a daunting situation, but guess what? We’re only seeing one part of it. There’s so much more that’s pure potential, and how we perceive it is going to be our game changer.
Friend, many things around us are just a deception, and our enemy will use our limited vision to taunt and haunt us and to try to keep us in the valley so that we end up with a pile of dry bones; but remember it is a valley – not of death, but a shadow of it. Death cannot have us if we see Life leading us. When Ezekiel experienced a valley of dry, dead bones (Ezekiel 36), he was overwhelmed because they were too numerous to even count – it felt like the valley of the shadow of death; but God had Him prophecy life to the bones, and he saw them come to life. He saw them arise and become living, breathing, normal people. Know that you will be ushered out of this “valley” season or experience stronger and deeper, and more mature in your faith. Choose to embrace the presence of God. Choose to keep believing. Acknowledge that there is more you can’t see than what you can see. The verdict of man is not the verdict of God, and Jesus – our mighty Warrior, the Captain of the heavenly host – is on your side. When you start moving up the mountain, you will see all of this from a different perspective, and you can start practicing that now. The main thing is “I will fear no evil because You are with me” because fear can really cloud our lenses.
I declare Life over you, and the powerful peace of our Lord Yahweh. God promised He would never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and that means that even when we’re in that valley of shadows longing for some sunshine, He gives us light, and takes us by the hand to walk us right through. The question is: am I His? Do I know He’s with me? I may have got here through my own choices but this is not the end of the road for me. God is with me and He is leading me through this wilderness into my city set on a hill, my land of milk and honey.
Minoli Haththotuwa, 11 June 2026
