Tuesday, July 15, 2008

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Walking in Darkness

"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time." — Oswald Chambers

Do you ever feel like you are stumbling around in the darkness?  And you don't have a flashlight?  Like you simply don't know which way to turn and you wonder where God is and how you got here and which way is His way?  I know that I have.  What has smetimes been called "the dark night of the soul" is not a fun place to be.  We feel all alone.  And, we would gladly come into the light if we could only find the way.

Fortunately, the Bible is filled with stories about people who didn't know the way. Abraham was called to follow God even though God didn't reveal it beforehand.  Noah climbed into a boat to float around who knows where for a year or more.  Exodus 20:21 talks of Moses walking "into the thick darkness where God was."  And, there are many more.  Know that being a follower of God does not guarantee that we will always know the way.  In fact, it almost guarantees that we will not!

Isaiah says,

"Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God" (Isaiah 50:10).

There will be dark times.  That is inevitable.  And maybe that is where we find ourselves right now.  The question is, when I am there, what am I to do?  The first thing is, simply, keep walking.  Don't stop.  You will never get out of where you are if you don't keep going.  Don't run either.  Running through the dark will not make it end sooner, you will probably trip and fall and it will take even longer.  Keep walking!  "Even though I walk through the dark place, I will fear no evil, for you are with me" (Psalm 23:4).  You are not alone.

The second thing to do is actually something not to do.  Do not try to light your own way.  Isaiah 50:11 doesn't paint a pretty picture of the end result of doing so.  But, how tempting is it to light our own way, to figure our own way out of this uncomfortable place?  Resist the temptation.  Nowhere in the word of God will you find an encouragement to figure it out on your own!

No, rather, and this is the third thing that we are to do, "trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6) or, as it says here in Isaiah, "Let him . . . trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God."

There is no need to fear for we are not alone.  God has brought you and me to this place for his purposes in our lives and he will also bring us through it.  The promise of Psalm 37:23-24 is that,

"If the LORD delights in a man's way — and he absolutely will when we do things his way! — he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand."

Hold on to his hand through the dark place.  He will bring you through.  Our days and our ways always end in night and in darkness.  But God's ways are not our ways.  He has a higher way.  "And there was evening, and there was morning . . . " (Genesis 1).  For God, his days never end in darkness.  Darkness never has the last word.  Not in creation and not in your life!

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