Waiting for the Morning

               Faith in the Dark (Sonnet 31)
The darkness makes my heart shrink back in fear;
I firmly grasp my Friend whose hand is there.
I love Him more because He stays so near
And never falters in His tender care.
While in the dark, with naught to see or do,
My Friend in calmness gently speaks to me.
He tells me all He’s ever said is true,
And that He knows all things that e’er shall be.
It’s in the darkness that I learn to trust;
He keeps me safe because each step He knows.
Since I can’t see, then lean on Him I must,
And with His proven guidance, my faith grows.
If in the dark I learn He does what’s right,
Prepared I’ll be to live and serve in light.

Life is not always easy. All Christians face segments of the upward climb that are especially difficult. One of the best ways to describe those times is by comparing them to the darkness of night. My pastor recently preached from Psalm 30. In the psalm David describes some of his difficult times and then gives this statement in verse 5: “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.”

As Pastor read this verse, my heart involuntarily brought a question to my lips: “But where is the morning?” Sometimes it seems that it will never come. I pondered the nighttime stage that my life seems to be in. Over the past year and a half, I have faced a number of difficult challenges, including a job loss and significant health struggles – and those two things don’t even top the list. That’s not to say that my life is completely filled with darkness. There are blessings as well, but there is an overall sense that I am in a challenging time frame in which God is preparing something better to come.

The circumstances of the preceding week and the struggles of the day combined with the focus of my pastor’s sermon to magnify the darkness of my current situation. It was a “perfect storm,” in which the events of life and the topic of the sermon worked together to put my focus on the blackness of the night. The expressions from Psalm 30 that ought to have given hope threatened to discourage me instead. All I could think about was how I am still waiting for the morning. It seems that I’ve been waiting for too long, and it is hard to continue in the darkness.

Even as I had those thoughts, I knew I had to change them. God does not intend for His children to remain discouraged or to focus on the darkness. My mind went to Psalm 42:5: “Hope in God.” God can provide hope instead of gloom, and His Word is the light that can illuminate the darkness. So the answer had to be found in more time talking with God and allowing Him to talk to me. God’s answer came as He directed my thoughts to three precious passages.

Psalm 27:13-14 “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD.” If I don’t believe that God will again show His goodness, yes, I would be left in despair. But His goodness will come; there is no doubt of that. There will be reason to rejoice. I just have to wait for it, and I haven’t waited long enough yet. I can’t give up waiting. When God’s goodness comes, and it will, I want to be right where He has placed me, waiting for it and doing just what He has asked me to do.

My heart was then directed to a New Testament counterpart of those verses, found in Hebrews 10:35-36: “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”  While I long for morning to come in its fullness of light, it is more important that I maintain faith during the night. I must maintain my confidence in God, and He will reward my faith, because He always does. In the meantime, I just need to keep on doing what I know to be the will of God for now. If I endure, I will see the reward that God will give.

The third passage God brought to mind was I Peter 5:10: “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Again God gives the assurance that the suffering is only for a little while. It will end, and then God Himself will come and do His work in my heart. He is the God of all grace; it is a precious comfort to think of Him in that way during a time of trouble. God will do four important things for me. He will perfect, completing me spiritually and mending the wounds. He will confirm, establishing my faith and assuring me more than ever that His words are true. He will strengthen, giving me spiritual vigor and knowledge beyond what I had before. He will establish, deepening and reinforcing my foundation so that I cannot be shaken. Not only will the suffering end, but there will be great profit from it.

I must admit that sometimes I imagine the night to be darker than it really is. Sometimes I forget to turn on the light of God’s Word to dispel the darkness. It is also true, however, that there are dark stretches in life. There are nighttimes, and those nights often extend into long periods – but they always end. There is no night that God will not bring to its conclusion. God will always show His goodness, He will always bring the promised reward for faith, and He will always do His good work on the heels of the suffering. So when I find myself in the darkness of night, I must remind myself, “Just keep waiting. Morning will come.”