TREASURES OF DARKNESS (cont)

One of the worst things about being in a pit is that you are so alone. You seldom enter a pit with someone else. Even if you are going through a difficult time with your husband or wife or child, you are each in your own private pit.

No two people experience troubled times exactly the same. That is one reason families who go through tragedy are often pulled apart. One may be dealing with grief while the other is experiencing anger. Neither can understand the other. They are both crying out for understanding and help from each other, but are oblivious to the other’s pain.

Yes, the pit is a lonely place to be. David knew something of this loneliness:

O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee…

for my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to the grave.
Thou has laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in deeps.
Thou hast put away my acquaintances far from me,
I am shut up and cannot come forth….(Psalm 88: 1, 6, 8)

I cried unto the Lord with my voice, with my voice I made
Supplication unto the Lord. I poured out my complaint before Him
I showed him my trouble….
I looked on my right hand and behold, there was no man that would
Know me; refuge failed me…no man cared for my soul…..
Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise Thy name! (Psalm 142 1-2, 5)

Sometimes the hurt you are facing is so deep and so personal, you cannot share it with anyone. In those times, you are so alone. God is the ONLY one you can go to, the only one you can pour out your complaint to. You long for someone to come alongside you, to help bear the awesome burden you are feeling, but alas, you cannot. You are alone in this pit of yours and you feel as if you will never again see the light of day.

It’s in those times that you must remember you are NOT alone. God is there right in the middle of the pit with you. The treasure He gives to you in those circumstances is Himself. He has promised never to leave you or to forsake you. He will come to you and He will comfort you like no person ever could. He will feed you with his Word. He will sustain you moment by moment.

Recently a well known Christian musician, Stephen Curtis Chapman and his family, experienced a terrible tragedy when their 16 year old son accidentally killed their 5 year old adopted daughter in a driveway accident. This family knows what it’s like to be in the pit. Each of them is hurting, each of them is suffering their own private grief and pain. In an interview with Larry King, Mary Beth Chapman said that she was making it "moment by moment". She said she woke every morning and asked God to get her through THAT day. And He has. He will continue to help them as they deal with the pain of this huge loss in their lives. He will be there to help their son to heal and to forgive himself. He will be their treasure in this unfathomable darkness.

"Fear not for I have redeemed thee, I have called you by name, thou art MINE!
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee…
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned;
Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee….
For I AM the Lord THY God, the Holy One of Israel,
YOUR SAVIOR!!
You are precious in my sight." (Isaiah 43: 1-4)

Have you experinced Treasures of Darkness in your life? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Please leave your stories by way of the comment button below.

TREASURES OF DARKNESS (cont)

I shared with you a few days ago that I had begun a series on Treasures of Darkness a while back. I am sharing some of those with you here.

I watched a replay of a broadcast with Stephen Curtis Chapman from Good Morning America earlier today. This man and his family know about walking in darkness after the tragic death of their 5 year old daughter, Maria, who was accidentally run over and killed by their older son. This family spoke of their faith and their HOPE. They are experiencing the TREASURES OF DARKNESS.

When you are in the dark, the one thing you need is LIGHT.




David and I have become very good friends. I find myself camping out with him more and more. I think I was originally drawn to him because of the simple way he expressed himself. I could relate. I didn’t need a commentary or a concordance, I didn’t need to look up the Greek or Hebrew, I just listened to what he said and it spoke to me right where I was. I could put myself right into his place. His words became mine, expressing my innermost hurts and fears. David is VERY expressive and he was never bashful about speaking his mind to the Lord. Yet for all of his assertiveness, God still called him "a man after my own heart". To me, that has to be one of the highest compliments God could ever pay anyone. I long to hear him say that about me. So I felt right at home with David and felt I could learn a lot from him. Boy!! Have I !!!

David speaks my language and I bet he speaks yours too. He is acquainted with grief, sorrow, pain, suffering, rejection, loneliness and fear, just to name a few. Have you ever experienced any of those emotions? Maybe you are in the midst of one of those right now. If so, I invite you to come with me to David’s place, the book of Psalms, and camp out with us a while. He knows firsthand what it is to walk those dark valleys. Let him encourage your heart as he has encouraged mine so many times before.

When I first learned to "press into Christ", I began to seek help and comfort from the Word like I had never done before. Oh, I had studied the Bible for many years and taught it as well. But I had never clung to it the way I did at that time. A personal crisis of such magnitude came into my life that I HAD to cling to the Lord..there were no other options. Fear gripped my heart. I literally RAN to Him. I found Him in David’s camp and there I began to stay. I remember it well, but it is forever etched also in my Bible. I began at that time to write the date out beside the verses that God was using in my life.

One of the first verses He gave me at that time was Psalm 18: 28, "For thou wilt light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness". I was in one of the darkest places I had ever been and God was saying to me that HE would BE my light and as my light, HE would lighten my darkness. Have you ever been in the dark? The kind of dark where you can’t see your hand in front of your face? I have.

We have a farm about 50 miles from our home. There my husband and our son and son-in-law deer hunt. My husband had hunted on this land for almost 25 years when the opportunity presented itself for us to buy this place. God opened the door and we were blessed to do just that. Now in all the years that they had hunted, I had been there maybe 2 or 3 times and always in the daytime. But after we purchased the place, we fixed up a house trailer that had been left there so that we could spend time there in that quiet and beautiful place. The trailer had been vacant for almost 2 years and had even been vandalized twice. It was empty, dirty and in need of a lot of work to make it habitable again. But it was a labor of love,, so we didn’t mind. We would go up and work on it as time permitted.

One day we worked til dark and since it is old, we decided to completely shut off all electricity to it before we left for the night. When my husband, Larry, pulled that switch and all the lights went out, I’ve never seen dark like I saw dark that night!! In fact, after that, I told him that you could look up ‘DARK’ in the Webster’s dictionary and it would say "Thomas and Thomas farm"!! You could see absolutely nothing!!

So I know dark and when you are in that kind of dark, the one thing you desperately need and long for is LIGHT. When I read from David that God would light my candle, that He would light my darkness, I knew that was exactly what I needed. That verse was written on a card and hung over my sink in the kitchen for months after that. A constant reminder to me, that the darkness would not last forever. God had promised to dispel that darkness and I clung to that promise.

Are there any dark places in your life? Do you feel like the whole world has closed in around you? Do you feel like no one else on earth could possibly know how you feel right now? Maybe the pain is so great, yet so personal that you cannot even share it with your closest friend. You know what? Your closest friend knows…….IF your closest friend is Jesus! He does understand. You can pour out your heart to Him. He cares so deeply about your hurt and He longs to lighten your darkness….to BE your light. The only way out of the darkness is for someone to light your way. God will light your candle today if you will only let Him.