Night is something many children are afraid of. Why? It is a dark forest where the boogie man hides, where things can jump out and get us, or where the unknown can turn into all too real nightmares.
Adults have their own dark forests to run from.
The darkness is not so different. We are angry at our parents years after leaving home. A certain word still provokes a response, even when there is no intent behind it. A frightful experience from years before waits to jump out at us at just the wrong time, breaking down all our defenses.
God wants to banish those dark forests from our lives. He wants us to take his hand and follow his footsteps, so that we know just where to walk each moment of each day. In the process, he wants to teach us to help others, so that their darkness also becomes a thing of the past.
Here’s what God’s Word says about the darkness:
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Psalm 27:10
“For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.”
Psalm 23:1-6
“The Lord is my shepherd…I will fear no evil…and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Deuteronomy 31:8
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
God’s Word also gives us ways to help others who might be walking in those shadowy places where we have been:
2 Timothy 4:1-5
“I charge you…reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching…do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
2 Thessalonians 1:1-5
“…We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers…we ourselves boast about you in the churches…that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—”
Hebrews 4:16
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
God gives us his assurance that he is with us even when we stumble in the darkness.
1 Peter 1:5
“Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last times.”
Darkness is a part of this world. However, Jesus came to open the door to a new world, a spiritual world in which we can know the light of God’s love. There, the darkness can no longer abide.
God may not cut down the trees that oppress us, but he banishes their power over us as he leads us out of the forest.
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