God gives us a vision, then he takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. While still in the light of the glory of the vision we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work.

— Oswald Chambers