Christian Living

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"Even in darkness light dawns for the upright..." Psalm 112:4a

Cancer. Rebellious children. Unemployment. Transition. Financial strain. Loss. Depression. Several friends and I recently discussed the number of people we know who are embroiled in adversity. None of us could recall a time when so many friends and family were facing darkness.

Most of us don't comprehend the darkness created by suffering or uncertainty while we are busy surviving it. The Old Testament's Job didn't understand it. He brazenly informed God and misguided friends of his anguish, his confusion. Yet in the middle of his sufferings when he was "nothing but skin and bones," when his breath was offensive to his wife, when friends had forgotten him, and when young boys taunted him; Job made a bold statement, "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth." Unwavering faith--despite his conviction that this same Defender had "blocked" his way and shrouded" his "paths in darkness."

During two of my blackest weeks, I was restricted to a hospital bed in the Cayman Islands. My tactful physician from the Grenadines warned, "If da clot in ya pelvis come loose den 'BOOM,' ya dead." I embraced Psalm 18:28 and have returned to it often:

"You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light."

The prophet Daniel desperately needed darkness illuminated. He, and all King Nebuchadnezzar's wise men, faced execution unless someone could interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream--without being told the dream. After God revealed the dream and its meaning, Daniel lifted words of praise including:

"He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells in him."

We may not know what lies in our darkness, but The Light does...and "at night His song is with" us. Our God "will turn the darkness into light before" us.

Do you have an encouraging story or scripture for dark times?
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Scripture References: Job 19: 12-20, Job 19:25 (NASB), Job 19:8 (NIV), Daniel 2:22b, Psalm 42:8b, Isaiah 42:16b

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