When Your Light Becomes Darkness
by Andreas Hefti
I remember well the night I was driving my normal route home from work and the lights went out.
I was living in the city, and had been driving this path to and from work every day for a year. It was a familiar route; one I would often drive without even thinking about where I had to go - until the night the lights went out. There was a power failure in the area and all the street lights had gone dark. Suddenly, the familiar route was a foreign place. I was filled with uncertainty (what went wrong?), confusion (where is the next turn I’m supposed to take?), fear (what if I get lost?) and doubt (am I even in the right place?).
Sometimes it can be like that in our walk with the Lord. Everything is running smoothly, the family is content and happy, work is going well, the car is running when suddenly, BANG. Out of nowhere comes a blast of darkness that seems to snuff out the light in our lives. It could be the loss of a job, or the sudden loss of a loved one. We may have a moment, or longer, of uncertainty, confusion, fear and doubt (where is the Lord in all this?). We may feel like the psalmist who wrote ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night’.
It’s in these times we need to engage our will and choose to ‘lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth’ (Psalm 121:1-2), and to remember that ‘even the darkness is not dark to you (Lord), the night is bright as the day, for darkness is a light with you’ (Psalm 139:12).
Prayer: Heavenly Father, You know that in my life right now is the darkness of … (tell the Lord here what your darkness is). Please forgive me where I’ve blamed You for the darkness, and I choose today to lift up my eyes to You. You who made the heavens, the earth and me. I thank You for Your promise that You’ll be with me in the times of trouble, and will guide me through them. I’m asking You now to guide me through my darkness, and help me to see the light of You in the midst of it all. Amen.
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