How are you doing this morning, good I hope? It is Friday and another weekend is here. I hope that you have a good and very Blessed Friday and weekend too! God Bless you and yours!
#TellTheLordThankU!!!!
When hope is dim and help seems distant, discover grace.
“We have the Word as a light shining in a dark place.” 2 Peter 1:19
My thoughts and comments today are about “Treasures In Darkness.”
By Pastor Allen Randolph
As a young teen, I worked the night shift in a truck stop one summer. At first, it was exciting staying up all night; though I probably played more pin ball than I pumped gas. After the first few hours, the night just seemed too long and too dark before the first daylight edged over the darkened, eastern horizon. And while in college, I had a summer job at a steel mill, usually on the night shift from 11 pm to 7 am. I never liked going to work when others were going to bed, or going to bed as others were just waking up. It seemed contrary to some natural order of things. In darkness, you do not see as well nor as far.
Dark nights of the soul are neither where you expect to find the best nor where or when you would prefer. But God has His own time and place for everything. God says there are treasures there in the dark that can be found no other place, at no other time, and in no other way. There is a darkness of the soul that is not a literal or physical darkness. At those times, God promised, “I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness.” Isaiah 45:3 NLT. There are many Biblical occurrences of God walking into dark hours people experience – physically, emotionally, or spiritually. God is present at distressing and difficult moments.
Gayle and I were newly married and I was just beginning my senior year in Bible college, when in a day’s time our future seemed dark and uncertain. The darkest night of my soul may well have been that night after my father and sister died in a highway accident, and my mother was gravely injured and hospitalized in Sikeston, Missouri. After flying that same night from California, then driving several hours to her bedside, I fell wearily across the bed in a small motel across the highway from the hospital. Never a night felt darker. Treasure was the last thing I expected to find that dark night, but find it I did.
The last sermon I heard my Dad preach was about Solomon’s prayer that God would give him wisdom, “For I am as a child and do not know how to go out or come in.” Read 1 Kings 3:7-12 NKJV. As I prepared for ministry feeling ill prepared, Solomon’s words became my confession and prayer. I opened my Bible that night in a Sikeston motel room lit only by the motel sign outside my window, and began to read. My eyes fell upon the words out of a dark night of the psalmist’s own soul, “From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth . . The Lord will preserve your going out and coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” Read Psalm 121:1-8 NKJV. I had found my treasure hidden in the dark night of my soul. “My God turns my darkness into light.” Psalm 18:28 NIV.
There in my most difficult of tragedies, God’s Word became the quiet, clear voice of a caring, compassionate God assuring my heart that my “comings and goings” would always be safe in His hands. “He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” Psalm 121:3-4 NIV. God “neither slumbers or sleeps,” then or now. For some of you, this is a word of encouragement while you are walking through puzzling, uncertain times, feeling alone when you don’t know what or why. There in the dark, when you have more questions than answers, you will find God near.
When hope is dim and help seems distant, you will discover grace. “We have the word . . you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:18 NIV. God is your answer; God’s Word holds your answer. “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 NIV.
Today, I pray for you to look for God and you will find Him near.
K-Love’s Encouraging Words:
Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Proverbs 1:7 (NLT)
~Long Live Real Cowboys~
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