Believing Is Seeing, Pt. 3
Ps. 18:28 You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light. (NIV)
Faith is believing what you have not seen. The reward of faith is seeing what you have believed. For this reason, the present darkness that you face is an opportunity to exercise your faith and to see your faith grow! Most people don’t do this. They spend their time cursing the darkness instead of looking past it.
Have you ever noticed that some things don’t work well, but people do them anyway? Whenever men and women are preoccupied with cursing the darkness, it can easily become their singular focus. They get stuck in a moment. They live like the walking dead. They are miserable most of the time. They have resigned to being a victim of the darkness. Their closest friends and relatives are at a loss to know how to help them. After a period of time even family members will try to avoid the subject of the darkness, or may even resort to shunning the person altogether.
We have a choice. We can live as victims, or we can live as victors. What’s the difference? Victims curse the darkness. Victors find a path out of the darkness. So it all comes down to this question: What is the pathway out?
Notice this verse:
Ps. 112:4 Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. (NIV)
Here is a promise from God. Light will dawn in your darkness. Gloom and despair will not hover over you forever. Trust that God will send the sunrise of your deliverance. It’s only a matter of time.
Someone might say, “But it’s been dark for a very long time, and I don’t see this changing anytime soon.” That may be your present reality. If it is, then consider this next fact: Behind every promise is a premise.
God places a condition on the light dawning in the darkness, which has everything to do with the character of the person upon whom the light dawns. This is important because darkness has the capacity to turn people into little demons. It colors their perspective and can even change their personality.
But according to God’s Word, people with these four character traits will see the light of God shining into their darkness. The “upright,” “righteous,” “gracious” and “compassionate” will not be overcome by the night. However, a person who leads an upside-down, blame shifting, mean-spirited, and critical existence will be sucked into the black hole of misery. The antonyms of the promise always bring a curse.
A child of God will not behave in such a fashion, or at least not for long. They realize that God is more concerned about character than He is their comfort. Something deep within them always yearns for a higher quality life and for a spiritual light to descend upon them. God designed you in such a way that you will never be satisfied or at peace until you see the light. This is why Paul says in Eph. 5:8,
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. (NIV)
Also notice 1 Thes. 5:5,
You are all sons of the light and sons of the day.
We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. (NIV)
And if that were not enough, note Col. 1:13,
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, (NIV)
I wish all of humanity would turn to the light of God’s promise. An old Quaker once said, “Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” The world desperately needs every Christian to live out the calling of Jesus Christ, “You are the light of the world.” The spiritually poor citizens of this world are groping in the darkness for someone to guide them through the gloomy valleys of life. What the Lord has done for you, let Him do through you for others.
Isaiah 42:16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. (NIV)