Facing the Dark Night of Your Soul

“One who truly fears God, and is obedient to Him, may be in a condition of darkness, and have no light; and he may walk many days and years in that condition.” Those are the words of the Puritan Thomas Goodwin, written some 350 years ago. 

Several of the most popular books found in Christian book stores today are written by men who preach things that sound nothing like the words of Thomas Goodwin. “Your Best Life”, one title reads and it’s filled with the notion that Christians deserve the best of everything and if we “speak” it out then God has to respond with that new Lexus. Yet all around us we see our brothers and sisters suffering through many sorrows. Just last night I attended the wake of a young man who took his own life at the very young age of 23. My church’s prayer list is filled every week with new prayer requests. Struggling marriages, addictions from drugs to pornography, children with behavioral problems that defy the best of psychologists, cancers of all types, and a list of many other afflictions seem to run amok amongst God’s people. For many of us it is truly a dark night of the soul.

The truth is Goodwin got it right; those who follow God sometimes “walk many days and years” on a dark and difficult path. The world we live in seems to get worse every day. Where is the light? How can we go on?

The truth is that those books you find in the bookstores are filled with lies and distortions of God’s Word. They are written with one purpose; to tell you what you want to hear so you will pay your $29.99 for the book and eagerly anticipate the next one.

In truth if you are a Christian you have the only book you need to find hope. God gave us the Bible and it is His Word and it is the truth. As you read the stories of the Old Testament you find that you are not alone. Many others have faced their own “Dark night of the Soul.”

Look at Abraham. Minding his own pagan business and one day God just shows up and promises him that he will become the father of a great people whose number will be like that of the stars in the sky and the sands on the beaches. Yet well into his old age God has yet to make it happen. Abraham is in his 90’s and still wondering, “Where is the son God has promised me?” Abraham packed up his whole life and wandered off as God told him, yet he has not even seen a glimpse of the promise’s fulfillment. It must have been dark nights for Abraham.

Maybe today you know that feeling. Maybe last night you cried yourself to sleep in the dark night of your own soul. Maybe you feel as if God has abandoned you. I can assure you; He has not. Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah from 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.”

The Christian life is a life of faith. It is not an easy one despite what some may say. Jesus said this to the disciples and He is also speaking to us.

John 16:33
"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."

He spoke those things in anticipation of the darkest of dark nights. He would soon go to the cross. To the disciples things could not have sounded bleaker. Even Jesus was distressed by the events about to unfold. So distressed He would sweat blood as He cried out to the Father in prayer in the Garden Of Gethsemane. Yet he would finish that prayer by saying “You will be done, not my will.”

This life is hard. It seems to be getting harder, maybe even harder for the Christian. But the Bible is a story of hope and redemption.  It a story that ends with light, a light so wonderful that words cannot describe it. We must open the Word of God and make it real in our lives. In the darkness of the night we must believe it and we must cling to it. We must gather together and encourage each other to stand in faith and believe God. Sometimes we must have faith for others and simply hold them up until they can regain a foothold of faith.

There is a sure hope. Jesus promised this in Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Even in the darkest night of your soul, Jesus is there with you. Cling to Him and hold on to Him no matter how dark it is. The night may be a long one but it shall one day pass and the bright sunny morning will arrive.

I will say this until my last dying breath, we must read God’s Word and make it real in our hearts and minds. This life is hard and we must live by faith.

Romans 10:17
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Read about Abraham. He was a man of faith. He stumbled a few times and took matters into his own hands, which didn’t go well. But in the end he lived by faith. The result of that?

Romans 4:3
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Believe God. Even in the dark. Then He will count it as righteousness and you will dwell in the house of God forever.