FS Miracle Monday
Light In The Darkness
By Miki Maynard
March 22, 2021
After this new year, many of us have our hopes up about things getting better. Rightfully so, as we should because God promises that we can have hope and believe Him when He says He has a
future for us that is good.
But what about those who have not seen a change in some difficult areas of their lives? I’m not talking just about the pandemic. I’m talking about those who are dealing with something they have had to endure for a long time, and they don’t see any changes yet.
THE PROBLEM WEIGHING DOWN MANY BELIEVERS
I really feel like there are some who are in a place where they feel so weighed down by something that they wonder how they can go on. It reminds me of someone who, for example, gave their life to Christ, but their family is in direct opposition to it and now their life is at risk. Some of you have been abused and harassed by people on an ongoing basis. People have lied about you and want to destroy any future you hope to have. You ask me, “Does that really happen to people?” Oh yes, it certainly does. I’m also thinking about those who endure communist country restrictions, concentration camps, or live in a country that is hostile or abusive against religious beliefs, Christians, women, and children. There are many who have been in constant pain waiting for the Lord to hear their cry for deliverance and heal them physically or heal their broken heart.
As Christians, we can know the goodness of God, despite hardships that are ongoing, because God is a good Father. However, sometimes hardships can continue through blessings in an ongoing basis, and they don’t stop. It’s not in the past where you can move on and out from it and simply walk into a new and bright future. There are people who don’t understand why you struggle with the pain and the weight of your circumstance. They don’t realize its an unending battle that is not in your head, but in your life. Frankly, what is taking place is not in your control. It’s not going away, at least it isn’t going away right now.
I feel like some are weighted down by this suffering and when they find the joy of the Lord in the midst of it and think there is relief, the ugly thing rears its head again and they find discouragement taking them down into another spiral of despair. You feel like you can only take so much. You wonder how much you will have to go through before you see a change. You feel like you don’t have any strength to continually face it over and over ….and over again.
THE PROMISE IN THE PROCESS
If you would, please read on. I know you have heard it all said to you many times and might be saying in your head, “What’s the point in reading yet another prophecy or article about it? It’s not going to stop my problem!” You’re right, it isn’t going to stop the problem. But the truth is, God really wants to help you with His promise during this problem you are in. I ask that you open your heart and try again. Here are a few things that I have found out in my dark place. My circumstances still haven’t changed either and has weighed me down. These things have given me a broken heart, but I have found His Light in the midst of them. He is healing me. You can find light in your darkness too.
1. There is justice for you. In Luke 18, we find a widow coming to a judge, and she won’t take no for an answer. The key to this is she is persistent. The Lord Jesus shares this story to encourage us to not give up and to keep praying. This tells me that He knows what you are going through and that you can be assured that your heavenly Father, who is a good judge presiding over your life, sees it all, and He will take care of you and help you. Read Luke 18:1-8. (See attached excerpt on this parable. (She Got What She Wanted)
2. He is with you as you venture through the valley of the shadow of death. In Psalm 23, David is in a difficult place and he discovers that the “Good Shepherd” will help him. You will see in this pas-sage that God recognizes the loneliness and fear in your circum-stances, and David proclaims that your God will surely prove it to you and show you that He is near. You can count on it. Con-sider fasting on some level, pray and seek Him. I did, and He responded to me. Trust Him again.
Even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near. Palm 23:4
3. You have a purpose while you are in this darkness. The parable of the 10 virgins is found in Matthew chapter 25. I’m going to pause for a second before I go into this story. You may be asking, “What on earth will this parable say that will help me?” I have asked the same question. When we look at some of the cultural background of this story, it might shed some light on what may give you something to hold onto in your heart so you can carry on.
The parable is about the virgins waiting to meet the bridegroom. They have what the Bible says are lamps. In actuality, they are not little clay lamps that only illuminate a little bit, but long torches that have rags wrapped on top of them where you dip them in oil. Remember Jesus told this parable and the details He uses are for a reason. There is a lot of symbolism found in this passage, but I asked the question about the torches, “Why did they need torches to light their way?”
(Photo Piqsels)
It says that the bridegroom came at the midnight hour. That is in the dead of night. In that place it’s easier to give up hope when it’s more difficult not to see and believe that this will come to an end. They knew they had better have their torches to provide light in a dark place and during a dark time period.
Another thing that I found that is very interesting is that the virgins in the original language are bridesmaids. Bridesmaids prepare the bride for the bridegroom. Who is the Bride in the Bible? It’s the church, right? This parable speaks to the fact that while we are longing to see our Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, we are to be “pre-paring” the Bride for Him. We are supposed to be working and helping the church along to keep our hearts focused on Him. We have a job to do.
1 Peter 2:9 TPT says:
But you are God’s chosen treasure—priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience His marvelous light, and now He claims you as His very own. He did this so that you would broadcast His glorious wonders throughout the world.
He knows you are in darkness. This caught my attention: He says that “while you are in darkness, He is calling you out of it and into His marvelous light.” Its possible to get ahold of this concept while you are in the dark. I think once I realized that… in the reality of my dark circumstances, as horrible as they seem, I can grasp His Light.
I think that because there is so much trouble, that I wasn’t able to understand that in my situation, God can still reach me with His Light. It’s as if, because others don’t understand, and because it doesn’t stop happening, and it’s not in the past, I can’t see that I’m not exempt from His Love reaching me.
We are not excluded. We are included. Along with the fact that He can and will provide the Light that we need, He claims us as His own and wants to use us to help others. 2 Corinthians 1:4 TPT says:
He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.
He knows that you are suffering, and He is coming alongside you to comfort you. Now you can take His wonderful comfort and reach out to those who are in painful trials with the same comfort that He is giving you. Your job now, is to give it to them.
When others are touched by His love and your care, you will feel a joyous fulfillment knowing that you made a difference in someone’s life who was hurting so badly. Because you are in the dark place and have found His light breaking through and were able to assist someone else, you can together proceed to carry His light on a high torch through the darkness.
A PICTURE
There is so much in the Bible, when you study it, that will show this truth to you even more. As our Dr. Mary Sue Davis teaches in our classes about the overwhelming amount of truth of His unending goodness, she says “it goes on and on.” So before I close with a short story, I want to encourage you to get into the Word and join classes if you can in a church near you, or join our Firestorm clas-ses, because you will find Light in your darkness.
Here is a short story. When I was teaching a class I asked everyone to draw something that would express God in their lives. Most of the people in the group picked colorful paper. I did a drawing too, but I chose black paper.
While others drew sunshine, flowers, family, activities and wonder-ful scenes, I drew a very contrasted depiction in darkness. I drew a close up of the profile of my face looking to the right. The paper was black. All of the drawing I did was in white crayon. On the right side of it, I drew light shining onto my face. The left side of the drawing was all dark, then on the right side, His white Light was beaming at me, in the middle of my darkness.
Not everyone understood what my picture meant. Some didn’t care for my choice of colors and didn’t like my picture at all. Nobody said anything about it. Just like not everyone understands your situation. They don’t realize that this battle is not in the past, but it’s ongoing and you don’t know when it will end. People don’t understand why you are so weighted down. Your God knows though. He comes to you now to let you know that He sees you, because He cares. He is sending help.
Although that was years ago, and although I have seen many wonderful blessings and miracles in my life, some things still have not changed. They are still going on.
It’s not easy. So what I have had to do is realize that He is the Light in my darkness. He is with me and wants me to share with you that He wants to be the Light in your darkness too. He wants you to know that He hears your prayers and that He will bring justice. He will comfort you and show you that He is near. He wants you to take His Light, in the midst of your pain and suffering to others who need it.
Photo Unsplash)
You will see the goodness of God and experience miracles. In the darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death, you don’t have to allow fear to conquer you, because His love will take it away. You don’t have to be lonely in this place, because He is near you and wants you to show others that He is near them too. Trust Him again, because He knows what is dark. He is the Light of the world that is here now and enlightens your world.
You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit; You give me all I can drink of you until my cup overflows. Psalm 23:5
She Got What She Wanted
Luke 18:1-8
When Jesus wanted to teach his disciples about the need for constant prayer, He used a concrete example we can all understand.
A widow who had been wronged decided to set things right, so she approached a local judge with her petition. The woman was most likely part of the town’s impoverished under class, while the judge was a member of the town’s elite. In addition to the inequality of her social status, there was the issue of gender. The widow was less likely to receive the judge’s help simply because she was a woman. It would have been easy for the judge to ignore the woman – and at first, that’s exactly what he did. After all, she had no social standing, and she was a woman – therefore not entitled to a hearing by the wicked judge’s standards. But the widow was determined. Day after day she returned to ask the judge for justice until at last, she wore the man down.
In our day, men often have more power than women. Whether in business, politics, or the administration of churches and ministries, men occupy most of the top spots, and women make do with the rest. Some might argue that God’s designed rolls for men and women mandate that men wield more authority. But no one could deny that God is displeased when women are unfairly discriminated against. In Jesus‘ day, gender-based disparities were even more pronounced than they are now.
Jesus used some of these inequalities to illustrate the differences between humans and God. He taught that God is the Creator, and we are mere creatures. There is no equality in this relationship, but God demolishes the gulf separating us from him by giving us the gift of prayer, which we can use to plead our case before his throne.
God is not like the wicked judge in this story. Because of his great love for us, he wants us to pray and promises to answer our petitions. But he wants us to persist in our request just like the widow was persistent with the judge. This doesn’t mean that God will give us whatever we want just because we keep asking him. But it does mean that he will answer our request when we ask him for justice and wisdom.
The next time you have a request for God, think of the persistent widow, and make your case with as much energy, constancy, and determination as she employed.
(Every Man’s Bible, The New Living Translation)