There is a verse in Numbers 32: "They went as far as the valley of Eshcol." Eschol is where many of our dreams die. It is the place where we lose heart or lose sight or lose focus. That is as far as the spies got. The promise was about to be fulfilled. It was at their fingertips, but instead they let it slip through their hands.
The valley of Eshcol is the place where we stop trying or stop believing. It is the place where we turn back. It is the place in our relationships where we stop believing; stop hoping and stop enduring. It is the place where we say, "This is it. I can no longer stay till the end. I quit!'.
But here is what God put in my heart: turning your back on a God-given relationship is turning your back on God himself. Obviously, the operative phrase is "God-given." You need to keep going after that marraige; you need keep pursuing that relationship with that son whose heart is not in the home anymore; you need to keep believing in that person God sent into your life. Why? Not so you can accomplishment something. You need to go after that covenantal relationship because it is the thing that will keep you on your knees living in raw dependence upon God. That is how we grow. And that is how we glorify God.
For those in the valley of Eshcol, here's one verse.
Psalm 37 says, "Wait passionately for God." Most of us wait passively. The Psalmist says wait passionately. How do we wait passionately? One word: prayer. Prayer changes the heart. It re-calibrates the attitude in that where you have been assuming the worse, God by His Spirit can now renew your mind to believe the best.
For the details of believing the best to stay till the end, listen here.
Don't lose heart. Don't lose sight. Don't lose focus.
