Trusting in the “DARKNESS” (Part 2)

In the first part of this series, “Trusting in the Darkness”, I started to explore how life throws difficulties at us at times where our relationships are brought into question due to some area of weakness or fear. The fear could be over not knowing what the other party feels towards us when we are hit with a hard time or difficulty. It could be the feeling of isolation or inability to cope with our current problem and our friends or family seemingly not willing to bail us out when they have the means too. In any case, it is when life’s answers can’t be found and we feel lost. It is during those dark times that our relationships will be tested both with God and others. If you haven’t read the first article on this subject please do so before continuing with this one.

I started off this topic with the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus who found themselves in great need asking Jesus for help. The apostle John is the only one who included this story in his gospel account for good reason. John wrote his gospel from a relational point of view. He helps us to identify when we have good relationship with God and when we are just toying with religion. In this story Lazarus gets sick and dies.  John focuses on what all relationships go through when a crisis tests the quality of our love for each other. Can we trust the person we seek assistance from who doesn’t come through the way we expected?

John reveals that Jesus loved these three people in a unique way. To say Jesus loves us all is true. However, to say Jesus is intimate with all of us in the same way would betray the reality that we all experience God differently. Some of us seem to have a much closer walk with God than others. While we may experience struggles while walking in darkness, and those struggles may hinder our lives for a time, they don’t seem to damage our trust whereas with others the slightest trouble in life causes us to lose our trust in God and we stop our communication.  God is accused of a lack of love. This lack of trust and communication may last a day, week, month or even years. For Martha and Mary, they were hurt and wounded by his seeming lack of empathy concerning their brother but they still talk to Jesus out of their pain even when confused. Some people never recover in their relationship once they are disappointed with God’s actions or lack there of. No amount of scripture concerning the promises of God’s love assures them that God truly does because God didn’t come through for them the way they wanted or expected.

I left off the last article with a scripture from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament that deals with the time when the Jews were in Babylon and complaining that the things they were experiencing were God’s fault due to his lack of love.

Isaiah 50:10                                                                                                                                                                             

Who is among you that fears the LORD,   That obeys the voice of His servant, That walks in darkness and has no light?  Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.

Isaiah pens this prophecy because the Jews have felt that God didn’t love them anymore and that his love was shallow because of their suffering in Babylon. They have presumed that their experience reflected a lack of God’s love rather than their own lack of love for God. It turns out their suffering was due to their own lack of genuine love for and towards God. They had failed to follow God’s plan for their life and now they were experiencing the fruit of those choices.  It is to blame God or others when we are reaping the fruit of what we have sown.  Now our own current trials may not be the the fruit of a lack of our love for God but trials will indeed test the kind of depth or weakness in our love for God and others. The important thing is to examine just what our affection for God and others is based on. Is it only based on doing our will for our comfort or is it based on something far more valuable?

God identifies mature love through the words of Isaiah by saying that those who truly fear God and are identified as having biblical love are those who obey his voice even when darkness surrounds them. They so trust the person of God and his character that they trust his words even when circumstances look the contrary. This reminds me of a story I heard from someone living in Romania when it was under communism in the 70s. It happened a long time ago when a church and their church leaders were arrested and interrogated by the secret police in order to get them to betray each other. When the interrogator talked with each prisoner separately they accused the other leader falsely with reports saying some had confessed bad things about the other.  Each prisoner would reply, “They would never say such things about me because I know they love me”. At the end the prison guards gave their lives to Christ because of the unwavering love and trust they had for each other.

Martha and Mary still trusted Jesus in spite of their great pain and confusion. Yes, they were hurt deeply by what seemed to be Jesus’ lack of concern for their brother who was now dead yet their ability to still trust their friend Jesus was rock solid though tested through such fire. Look at their response when talking to Jesus in town.

John 11:21-22                                                                                                                                                                                        

Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.  “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”Jesus *said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha *said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha is totally honest with Jesus.  Martha is trying to wrap her brain around the “Natural”, which reasons once your body is dead you are dead, and the “Supernatural” idea that God can intervene and change what nature says is unchangeable.

Here is the key thing for all of us. In order to trust God, whether it’s dark or broad daylight, we have to be anchored in the belief that what God has promised is rock solid because he would never lie. This is regardless of what we might experience in life, good or bad. I confess that having that perspective and conviction does not come easy and can at times be shaken. It takes a lifetime of walking with God to learn to trust God more than circumstances. Just the awareness of the truth that our convictions can be shaken should cause us to know that the only safe place to dwell is in the person and presence of God for He is the one that gives us the strength we need for any and all circumstances.

I recently visited with a person who was dying.   They are such a godly person that many would love to have had their faith but, when faced with all the signs of death, they were trying to stop death with their faith confession believing that their confession was where their strength was rather than God himself. As I sat with this person I encouraged them to relax in the love of their Heavenly Father rather than the strength of their confession or power of their will.  All of a sudden it’s like a light bulb went on in their soul and the peace of God folded their soul in such a wonderful way we both started to cry. From that moment on this person was able to truly trust God with simple childlike faith. The outcome of their journey was more up to God rather than feeling like it was all up to them.  We struggle to be in charge yet our Heavenly Father is longing for our trust to be in Him rather than the outcome of our battle.

In the next article we will continue to explore walking in darkness while still trusting. Stay tuned for more!

Questions:

1) Have you been struggling to be strong in faith rather than strong in your Heavenly Father ? Confess & be free.

2) Are you still relying on what you know to “Win” rather than relying on who you know ? Confess & Rest in Him.

Exploring the character of God is where our real hope and security lies.

Pastor Dale