A Walk in the Dark?

Just a little light can transform fear to confidence. There are no streetlights near our home so I recently installed a 'dusk to dawn' fixture on the garage. When I come home late in the evening from a meeting it's great to get out of my car and walk to the door without stumbling, without wondering if a skunk is wandering nearby. (Yes, we really do live in the country.) If I awaken during the night, I like looking out and seeing that light spilling over our yard.

Sometimes darkness falls over our life, doesn't it? Sickness comes. Friends abandon. Finances fail. Death calls. An uncertainty can, and often does, arise. We are paralyzed wondering if there is yet another precipice in front of us over which we will tumble if we take even one more step forward. When we walk in the dark, a  sense of personal inadequacy can cause us  to wonder if we are uniquely unprepared or unequipped for life. Do others feel this same fear? Yes, they do!

The Scripture gives us this word of counsel for the dark times. "Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment." (Isaiah 50:10-13, NIV) Trust and rely on the Lord!   Our fear must not cause us to take shortcuts on faith, to abandon the principles of the Spirit for 'solutions' of our own devising. A principled life will be tested. Many will suggest that you 'light your own fire' in the dark, that you create your own way forward. But, the end result of leaving God's Way is not true rest, but a bed in which we feel the torments of regret.

Another prophet, moved by the Spirit to speak to God's people at time of testing and darkness, spoke much the same counsel. "This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'" (Jeremiah 6:16, NIV) "Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words." (Jeremiah 6:19, NIV)

The dawn will come, the darkness of the valley will give way to the light in due time. So, we go; steady on, trusting Him! God remains the Lord of all, equally in the dark of midnight and the glory of the noon.

Here is a word from the Word. It is the declaration of the Gospel's triumph, and from it comes my encouragement to stand steady in the dark. May the Spirit use it to encourage you. "My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go." (Ephesians 3:9-12, The Message)

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Here I Am To Worship

Light of the world

You stepped down into darkness

Opened my eyes let me see

Beauty that made

This heart adore You

Hope of a life spent with You

King of all days

Oh so highly exalted

Glorious in heaven above

Humbly You came

To the earth You created

All for love's sake became poor

So here I am to worship

Here I am to bow down

Here I am to say that You're my God

And You're altogether lovely

Altogether worthy

Altogether wonderful to me

Tim Hughes

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