Darkness is what manifests the light. It was out of the darkness that the magi saw and followed a star that led them to the light of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ. Consider the stars… they are always in the sky but only visible when it’s dark. We need the darkness to see the promise, to see the stars, to see what’s possible. When the light returns we know the stars are still there.

We need the darkness to reveal our weakness to ourselves that we may look up to the stars, the promise, the hope that is Jesus Christ. When we have wrestled with God in the night season like Jacob of old, we may well spend the rest of our life walking with a limp, but we never again will doubt God for we have seen him. It is in that wrestling and struggling with God that He redefines for us our very nature and purpose. (See Genesis 32 for details) Jacob which means “supplanter” was named Israel which means “a prince, one who rules as God”.

I am well acquainted with the night season and have learned to gaze at the stars and see the promise of God. It seems to make the night season shorter. If you are in a night season, take advantage of this opportunity to see wonders you may never have seen before. Press into God and gaze into His wonder. Wrestle with Him, even if it breaks your leg. You will emerge in the new day with a new sense of identity and more directed purpose. That in itself is a treasure worth finding!

I feel impressed to share an excerpt with you from the one-year devotional my wife Brenda and I wrote some years ago, called Grace for Grief. There are some of you right now that know folks who are walking through the grief process who this might help. Each day we quote a Scripture passage and then a prayer to God from one who has buried two children. This is not head knowledge. It is from the heart. Here is the excerpt from Wednesday of Week 12…

Scripture Passage…

“So place yourself under God’s authority. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil with good. Be firm in the faith and resist him, knowing that other believers throughout the world are going through the same kind of suffering. If you faint in a crisis, you are weak.” (James 4:7, Romans 12:21, 1 Peter 5:9, Proverbs 24:10)

Prayer Response…
Today I feel outgunned, outnumbered and all alone. The darkness within eclipses the sunlight without. Then it comes… I remember Your word and submit my thoughts and feelings to You. I resist the tormentor of my soul by drawing close to you and take heart that this path I walk, all people must walk. I am strengthened by the knowledge that you are with me always.

Grace For Grief (Hardcover)

“Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the armor of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; Remember the picture. Babylon had impregnable walls 75 feet thick, 200 feet tall with 100 gates of solid brass which were surrounded by a wide ditch of flowing water from the Euphrates. But the Babylonians had been enjoying a night of feasting and some fool left the gate open affording Cyrus the opportunity to march right in take over with barely a fight.

There is a powerful lesson here. You can have every outward sign of strength. You can go to church every time the door is open and do all manner of good works. But if you have left a gate open, you are vulnerable to attack. Consider for a moment the eye gate… What do you allow your eyes to look upon? Job made a covenant with his eyes so that his thoughts would not be upon a maiden. (Job 31:1) Do you set your eyes upon riches which certainly take flight like the eagle? (Pro 23:5) There are many things clamoring for the focus of our eye gate but to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple (Psa 27:4) surpasses them all.

Your life may be a fortress of good works and good intentions, but if you leave your gate open… if you feast upon the wrong things, you may find one day, your city, your life has been taken over by hostile forces and you were unable to put up any serious resistance. What have you been feasting on?