His Light Penetrates our Darkness
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the darkness around you? Maybe your circumstances were just too much for you to handle and you felt like you were drowning in darkness. Or maybe your flesh was pulling you into sin and you felt like you couldn’t stand against it, like you were being pulled into it’s darkness. In Psalms 139:11-12 New American Standard Bible David says he felt that way and we can learn how God comforted him:
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
The word “overwhelm” here means “to bruise, crush, gape upon, overwhelm, cover.” Yes, I have definitely felt like that at times in my life, as I’m sure some of you have too, beaten and bruised sometimes by others, crushed by the weight of my circumstances, covered in the darkness that I felt surrounding and suffocating me. But someone else was bruised and crushed for you-Isaiah 53:5, “He was bruised/crushed for our iniquities.” He took your bruising, crushing for you, so that you could reach for Him and He could pull you out of the darkness. He is not overcome by the darkness as we see Jesus described in John 1:4-5 New International Version:
In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
And I have definitely felt the light turning into night around me, but mostly this is when I have chosen to gaze at my circumstances instead of gazing at His face. The truth is that GOD IS LIGHT, and even the darkness is not dark to Him, because HIS PRESENCE brings light to wherever He is. And He is always with us. He does not forsake us. To God the night is not dark, because He is there making the night as bright as the light of the day! Let’s look at John 8:12 NASB:
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
God by His very nature is LIGHT. So if we invite Him into our dark circumstances, our dark feelings, our darkness of any kind, He will bring HIS LIGHT into that place because GOD IS LIGHT. And He will also give us the strength to overcome the darkness and power of sin in our lives (1 Corinthians 10:13). We invite Him in by spending time in His presence, in worship, in prayer, in reading His Word the Bible, in fellowship with other Christians. Psalms 36: 5, 7-9 NASB encourages us:
Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies…
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;
And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.
We have some choices to make here. We have to choose to come into HIS LIGHT. We have to choose to take refuge in the shadow of His wings. We have to choose to drink of the abundance of His house, of the river of His delights. We have to choose to invite Him into our darkness. I realized that some of us are so bruised that we need help to come into this healing He offers. Counselors help us with that! Don’t be afraid to reach out to a counselor or friend if you need help.
So please remember when you feel the darkness overwhelming you, to cry out for His help, and
LET HIM BRING HIS LIGHT INTO YOUR DARKNESS.
In His Love,
Suzanne
Ps. If you need some help with reaching out, please call: 988 suicide and crisis hotline
Mom Morsels 