God Dwells In The Darkness

OK, OK, I know that might be an extreme title for some people...I mean we all have heard the scripture God is Light and in Him is no darkness...that is 1 John 1:5 for those that like to look it up themselves...but I want you to hear me out.

Yes, I know theologically that God is light and there is not darkness in Him, but the darkness I'm talking about is the dark times of our lives. I believe that we are all destined to go through some type of dark time...for some it may be darker than others.

Let me give you a few scriptures...now before I get a huge response from people about which scriptures I'm using and how the background of those scriptures means this and that (by the way I do encourage you to respond to all my posts) just be patient and hear me out.

Exodus 20:21 says "...Moses approached the thick darkness where God was."

Deuteronomy 5:22 These are the commandments the LORD proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness;

Deuteronomy 5:23 When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me.

2 Samuel 22:12 He made darkness his canopy around him— the dark rain clouds of the sky.

There are lots of other scriptures and I don't want to get bogged down on all of them go to Biblegateway sometime and do a keyword search on darkness.

There was this time that my wife and I got this phone call at about 2:00 a.m. when we were pastors of a student ministry in Kingsville. Now when you pastor teens there are only two reasons you get calls at that time of night. Either it is a crank call or it is trouble. Well this night it was trouble. Five teens from our youth ministry were involved in a car accident and two were being lifeflighted to Corpus. Those are not the words you want to hear. My mind originally thought the worst.

One of the teens who was with them ended up breaking her pelvis and had to be in the hospital for a couple of weeks. This was her senior year in high school, obviously some dark times for her. Prior to the accident she was really questioning if God was around. Where was He? Was He out there? Even though she was in church and did have a relationship with God she felt all alone in at this phase in her life.

After getting out of the hospital she spoke about these times to the teens we were pastoring. Her message was that she felt God was not around but realized laying in that hospital bed that God was closer to her during the accident than ever before.

See many times we think that God is not around. We question why are these things happening to me? Where is God in all this? Let me tell you that God is right there with you. Scripture says that He will never leave you nor forsake you. That even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death...He is with you.

My number one favorite scripture is Micah 7:8 it says "Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light."

I firmly believe that God dwells in the darkness to reveal His light and glory to us and those that are lost around us. It is a light that shows the world that there is someone out there that cares deeply for us.

God is going to allow dark times in our life so that His glory will be revealed through them. It is through these times that our faith is released. Scripture is full of examples of people who travel through dark times in their life. Joseph, Job & Paul are just a few men that endured times of darkness only to have God do great things through them.

So when you are experiencing some dark times in your life just know that God is there. He always has been and He always will be.