Psalm 18:28 – For it is you who light my lamp; the Lord my God lightens my darkness.

THEME OF THE DAY. FAITH AND DARKNESS. Every Christian faces times and seasons of spiritual darkness. None of us walks in the perfect experience of God’s presence. We walk by faith not sight, and often that walk might appear like it is in darkness. And in many cases it is. God said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). He also said, “The secret things belong to our God” (Deuteronomy 29:29a). There are mysteries and things we simply will not understand when it comes to God’s Word and Ways. We save ourselves a lot of unnecessary inward turmoil if we learn to simply let such things go. Don’t be a “spiritual hamster” going round and round on a wheel and getting nowhere. We are called many times over and over not to try and figure out God’s ways, but to trust His ways. Faith acts upon known truth without having to have everything all figured out in advance. Faith also submits to God being God and His demand that we be child-like in our trust with Him, even when the lights are out spiritually speaking. It is true that our faith is tested most when we don’t feel God’s presence and pain abounds within us. But it is also true that our faith grows most when we trust God when we don’t feel His presence and pain abounds within us. And David acknowledges this in today’s scripture. Two things we may learn from him.

First, walking by faith in the dark requires we really believe only God and He alone is able to bring sense into our dark situation and circumstances. David says, “It is You, not my reasoning powers, not my manipulation of people or circumstances, but You alone who will ‘light my lamp’ or clear up my spiritual fog.” Friends, faith must rest exclusively on a trustworthy God who alone is light and illumination. Sometimes He won’t immediately make clear what is going on in our lives. During those times, He isn’t withholding the light to punish us or be indifferent to us. He delays in order to deepen our faith. He must get us to the point of complete surrender and trust in Him despite our understandings and experiences. He is working faith in us to rely upon Him even in the darkest of times. Hang in there if you are currently in a dark season. It is only a tunnel with light at the end which leads to the second truth from David.

God will turn the light of understanding on in your soul when the timing is right. And David was confident in this – “The Lord my God lightens my darkness.” His words are matter-of-fact, which reveals not casual indifference, but confident resting. The Psalmist had arrived to the point the prophet Habakkuk did – “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments” (Habakkuk 3:17-19). Things were pretty dark for the prophet and God’s people. Famine abounded and their situation appeared very gloomy. Yet, Habakkuk, through much pain (read the first three chapters of his book), arrived at a point of exercising confident faith in a time of deep darkness. And that is what God is doing in our lives during tough times; forging a faith in the darkness that will soon lead to a time of joyous and glorious light of understanding. Trust Him for it. He is always good to His promises, even when “the lights are out.”.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to trust You when I don’t feel You, don’t know what to do, and am fighting confusion.”

QUOTE: “When in doubt with a decision or a course of action to take; pray and wait. Don’t act impulsively. God will lead.”