8th March 2021 – When The Lights Go Out

Are you experiencing a dark time in your life? Do you have a wayward child? Have you experienced a financial reversal? Has someone broken your heart or taken advantage of you? Are you not able to make sense of what is happening in your life?

There are those seasons in life when we are not able to mentally grasp what is transpiring in our lives. Think about it for a moment. There are those instances when we have studied our lessons, learned our formulas, memorized the promises in God’s Word, and think we have it all figured out and suddenly we are plunged into deep, deep darkness. Why does such darkness come to a Christian?

What do we do when the lights go out? What do we do when darkness comes into our life? When we went to school, we received the lessons first and tests second. However, in life we take the tests first and learn the lessons second.

When you are in the dark, you do not have to have an explanation, you need God. It is more important to be with God in the valley of darkness than to be on sunlight peaks without Him. There are some things that I want that I don’t need and some things I need that I don’t want. Only God can truly discern between what is bad and good and what is good and best.

Sometimes, God removes all the answers in order to give us Himself. A relationship is more important than a reason. God desires to even use us in the midst of darkness. John Milton, in the darkness of his blindness, wrote Paradise Lost. While John Bunyan was in the Bedford Jail, London, England, he wrote Pilgrims Progress. During John the Revelator’s exile on the Island of Patmos, he wrote the Book of Revelation. God wants to develop our faith. Never doubt in the dark what you learned in the light. The test of our character is not what we do in a worship service. The test of our character is what we do in the dark.

If you are in darkness, then trust God. God will eventually turn every tear to a pearl, every hurt into a hallelujah, every Calvary into an Easter. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). One of these days, God is going to pull the shades of night and pin them with the stars. He will then open the door of the morning and flood your world with his light and love. You will see things and know truth that you have never seen or known before.

We must continue to live according to God’s Word even though tough times come our way. We continue to give our tithes and offerings even though there may have been a financial reversal. We continue to trust in the Lord even though we may not understand Him. We continue to attend God’s house even though tough times come to our family. We continue to have our quiet time with God even though sickness comes to us. We simply continue to stand on God’s Word. The promises of God remain the same whether the sun is shining or darkness comes to us.   

  (Ref: James O. Davis; Cofounder, Billion Soul Network).