“This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.” (Joshua 1:8) “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13)

There are three things that more than anything else I know of, seem to determine where we end up in life. They are the things we think on, the words we speak and the actions we take. This is a profound truth and will be the object of much study for me in the months to come.

Each of those three things are choices we make each day and involve a deliberate action. There are three other things that are unseen that also greatly affect the outcome of our life and they loosely parallel, what’s in our mind, what’s in our mouth and what motivates our actions. They are first of all, hope which is an anchor for our soul (Heb 6:19) and in its simplest form is a positive attitude about the present and the future. It arises from the things we think about and the beliefs we choose as a result of those thoughts.

The second unseen parallel is faith. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:13 “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;” Faith before it runs toward the challenge, speaks. It declares the outcome. This is a big topic for subsequent blogs. Faith however, without works is dead (James 2:17) and thus action always follows. But Galatians 5:6 says that faith works by love. It is motivated and empowered by love and love voluntarily labors. (1 Thess. 1:3)

And what does that labor produce? The harvest of what you think, what you expect and what you say. I will leave that with you for now and look forward to developing these thoughts with you in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, change your thoughts, change your life. Selah.

“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; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

Did you know that God has riches hidden in secret places? And these are riches He is eager for you to possess. Am I saying that God wants you rich? I don’t know what God wants for you with respect to tangible riches. I don’t know your character, your calling or your capabilities. What I do know is that there are great riches hidden in secret places and the kind of riches I am speaking of cannot be seen with the eye.

Take for example the rainforest. People with limited vision see only with their natural eye and cut it down to obtain temporal, tangible riches. They sell the timber and create pasture land for cows. But people with great vision who have spent time in the secret place of God know that God made the systems that make the rainforest the most productive and fruitful system on the planet producing tremendous abundance out of relative scarcity.

In spending time with the Father, they learn the systems. They discover the ways of God. They obtain great wealth of wisdom as they inherit His heart for the created order and in the process they can be trusted with the power that wisdom gives them. It is the unseen riches that produce the visible riches. Most folks chase the visible, corruptible, temporal riches. Wise ones chase the unseen eternal riches and in apprehending them, have everything else they need.

“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; I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and cut asunder the bars of iron: And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.” (Isa 45:1-3)

To the sons (mature ones) I write. The Lord has great treasures of darkness waiting for you to have eyes that you may see them. What are these treasures buried in the dark places? While it is true that Cyrus found literal treasure hidden in dark places, there surely is a spiritual application. In fact, there are many… The first one that comes to mind is the great treasure that I have gained in my darkest hours. My first born child was born with Down syndrome when I was such a young man. Those first few days were dark for me, but then the light exploded upon the scene and I saw such treasure. I realized that I was more fortunate than my friends. I grew much in wisdom and the ways of God.

Eighteen months later she died, less than a week before Christmas. Darkness came calling again. It envelops you, wants to rob you of any hope for ever seeing the light again. But in that darkness I once again found great treasure — not the tangible kind that decays, but incorruptible treasure that gives life to this day. And those are just the dark places I am willing to write about. There have been others where the darkness is not only void of light, but somehow thick with oppression. But even in that, I learned to see and God brought me out of that place into the glorious light of His dear Son.

Are you in a dark place right now? Ask God to show you the treasure. Ask Him to bring you into the light. Let His word be a candle to your feet and a light to your path. I can say with absolute certainty there is no darkness His light cannot penetrate. There is no heaviness a spirit of praise cannot break. There is no desperation that unbridled worship cannot deliver you from. This is beyond contestation despite the wishes of others who would rather you stay in darkness. I invite you my dear brothers and sisters to the light today. Come.