A sense of duty combines awareness of responsibility with expectation of pleasure from a job well done. This virtue has been placed on the endangered species list, even among people who call themselves Christians. Today's Christendom places self in the center, as itching ears set up those who will serve its carnal desires. The will of God is now what man wants, because of course God wants me to be happy. No thought more warped than this exists.
After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed.
via myutmost.org
The valley is the crush of the crucible, where we are proved, where faith is tested, and where we learn from our failures to discover the power of our Lord to transform failure to success, slavery into freedom, selfishness into service for His glory.