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Yesterday, I carried more coffee at the warehouse than I’ll probably ever drink in my entire life.

I left home in the morning, boldly declaring, “Even forty years in the wilderness is okay,” but came back in the evening completely exhausted.

When the body is weary, the heart becomes heavy too. I started thinking, “Maybe forty years is too much. Maybe I shouldn’t have prayed that way…”

Thankfully today
I feel a little better than I did last night.

But as I tried to read the Bible this morning, I couldn’t focus. My mind wandered, filled with distractions.

Then, as I sat blankly for a while, one verse caught my eye:

Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm

^{Deuteronomy 11:2 (NIV)}

And I felt like God was gently whispering to me:

Remember My word.
Remember My commands.
Remember My majesty.
Remember that I will surely lead My people for the sake of My name.
Remember My mighty hand—stronger than any situation you fear.
Remember My outstretched arm—I’m not watching from a distance.
Expect Me to move in your life.

I paused, letting those words settle in my heart.

The next verses didn’t really register. I got busy with other tasks and ate lunch. But then, I came back again to the Word.

There were some important decisions I had to make today. But I realized I needed to stop trying to handle everything on my own. I can’t do this with my strength anymore.

So I returned to Scripture.
In verses 10 and 11, God said that the land the Israelites were about to enter was not like Egypt.

The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.

^{Deuteronomy 11:10-11 (NIV)}

Not Egypt—But a New Kind of Land

I once lived in Egypt for two years as a volunteer worker like the Peace Corps.

From northern Cairo to Alexandria, I saw the vast Nile Delta—so wide that entire cities lived within it.

Each year, the floodwaters from Ethiopia and Sudan would bring new nutrients, making the land rich and fertile.

But God was saying the land for His people would be different.
Not like Egypt’s flat and fertile delta,
but a land of mountains and valleys—
a land that depends not on irrigation, but on the rain God sends from heaven.

A land where we can’t rely on ourselves or our environment.
A land watched over by the eyes of God.

It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

^{Deuteronomy 11:12 (NIV)}

Prayer from the Valley

Yes, Lord.

I’d rather live in the hills and valleys watched over by Your eyes, than dwell in the lush, fertile, and expansive green plains of Egypt where Your presence is absent.
You are my refuge and strength.

Thank You for today.
I trust You with everything that lies ahead.

Amen.