Heart Tracks - The Gift

"Even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is light to You." Psalm 139:12
...."Worshiping God through the longest night changes who we are." Sheila Walsh

I recently read an account by a missionary who had joined with a group of believers in a nation where Christians are heavily persecuted. He said that in the midst of their worship, the power in the apartment building where they were meeting went out. The room went completely dark. He said that the people proceeded on with their singing, taking no notice at all of the sudden darkness. He said what immediately came to mind was what the response would have been had the same thing happened in his home church back in America; that everything would have stopped, no matter what part of the "worship" they were engaged in. Getting the power, the light back on, would have been the priority. We don't like the dark. We fear it. We fear losing all control there. We fear what it might contain. All we "see" is the dark, which means we see nothing at all....especially Him.

During the Revolutionary War, there was a term used for those soldiers who would only fight and serve during the summer months; "Sunshine Patriots," they were called. They avoided the campaigning of the dark, cold winter. They preferred the much easier conditions of the summer. As concerns our worship of the Father, how like them are we? Are we those who can only worship in the light? Do we know anything of what it is to worship Him in the dark? Darkness so thick that all sight is gone. All we have is the belief, the faith that He is there, with us, in us, and that though we can see nothing, He sees everything. Most especially, He sees us. As Psalm 139:12 reads, darkness and light are the same to Him. He sees everything clearly in both. And His power and presence are unhindered by either.

There is a condition that has come to be known as "the dark night of the soul." Everyone who professes to follow Him will come to it. That place, circumstance, spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally, where everything is darkness. All natural sight and light is gone. In that place He asks us to remain in and with Him, not just trusting Him, but worshiping Him there. We may be incapacitated, but He isn't. Our power is totally negated there, but His isn't. We are restricted and constricted, but He is not. He asks us, no, commands that we believe Him in this place. Believe Him....and worship Him. The impulse of our flesh will be to do what the missionary believed his home church would do in the power outage; find a way to get the "power back on," the "lights" working again. He commands that our impulse be, our desire be, to worship Him there. With joy and expectation, because, as Jesus Himself said, He is the Lord of the light and the darkness. Almighty in both. So we can rest in the darkness, and worship Him there too.

Walsh said that to worship Him while in the dark may be the greatest gift we can offer Him. We may have no visible reason to do so, but we do have a reason; God Himself. We worship Him because of who He is, and when we do, something wondrous happens; we see Him. In the dark, we give Him the gift of our worship. He gives us the gift of Himself. What greater gift could there be?

Blessings,
Pastor O