When The Lights Go Out

When my four children were small, occasionally the electricity would go off in our home at night. If they were still awake, I would hear a unified chorus cry out, “Daddy!” Melanie and I would walk through the dark rooms and collect them one by one and bring them back to our bed, where we would lie down with them. With all six of us in one bed, we would put our arms around the children and assure them that we were with them. Without fail, in a short time they would all fall asleep, secure in the fact that we were there, holding them in the dark.

Your Heavenly Father is always there for you when the lights go out in life. He has you in His arms. He is with you when you are in the dark. When you are afraid, you can feel His love and know that He cares for you. (See 1 Peter 5:7) You may be assured that, although it might be pitch black around you, the sun will shine again. Until then, just rest in Abba’s arms, knowing that He will never let you go.

When you standing in the middle of troubling and confusing circumstances, choose to continuously think about the reality of the love of Christ for you. Through the eyes of faith, envision Jesus wrapping His arms around you. He hugs you and softly whispers to you, “It’s okay. I’m here. I love you and promise you that everything is going to be okay. Just stay here in my arms. I’ll take care of you.” Nothing in life provides a greater sense of peace in the face of personal sorrow than knowing that we are being held in a never-ending heavenly hug. In his arms, we find a “peace that passes understanding.”

Do you believe that your Father is for you and that He will deliver you through your trials safely to the other side of the circumstance? When you embrace the truth that He does deeply love you, in spite of any painful things that may come into your life, you will find yourself moving further along the road toward deeper intimacy. If you doubt your Father’s love because of painful events you have experienced, renew your mind with verses from the Bible that assure you of His great love. For instance, the Apostle Paul wrote:

For I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor …… shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 8:38-40).

Look at that passage again and note the things listed that have threatened your awareness of the love of God. Knowing His love is the only thing that will sustain you through the crisis of life.

In a hymn he wrote in 1876, George Robinson said:

Things that once were wild alarms cannot now disturb my rest;
Closed in everlasting arms, pillowed on the loving breast.
O to lie forever here, doubt and care and self resign,
While He whispers in my ear, I am His, and He is mine.
While He whispers in my ear, I am His and He is mine.

Don't beat yourself up if you aren't moving through your personal crisis in the best possible way. Many great Christians have gone through trials without keeping their head held high and their feelings staying strong all the way.

Look at what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:8-9 about how he went through the trials he faced when he was in Macedonia:

"We don't want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn't think we were going to make it. We felt like we'd been sent to death row, that it was all over for us." (The Message)

Does it sound like he was sailing through his troubles with a conscious and constant sense of victory? We always have victory but we don't always feel that way.

If you had been able to talk to the Apostle Paul, what would you have told him? Would your advice have been for him to give up faith? To shame him for thinking and feeling like he did? I suspect that your answer to him would have been to show him grace, to encourage him by reminding him that it would all be okay in the end. You wouldn't put him down for having normal human emotions in the circumstances he had to face.

Now, here is a big step that you can take to help yourself. Treat yourself the same way. That's right -- show yourself the same grace you would show to somebody else. It's amazing how gracious we can be with other people when they go through hard times and express negative thoughts or feelings. Then we turn right around and don't cut ourselves one ounce of slack when we are in similar situations. Don't do that to yourself.

Your Father is a gracious God to all His children. It's okay if you don't handle your situation perfectly at every instant. Look to Him and give yourself grace when you don't move through your situation with exact perfection.

(This article is an excerpt from my book, Journey Into Intimacy. For more information on the book, click here: http://gracewalkresources.com/item.asp?cID=0&PID=525