Editor's note: Enjoy today's devotion written for Devotionals Daily by Wendy Speake, author of A Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving.
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Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! — Psalm 100:4 ESV
There are seasons when the sun shines on our upturned faces and lark song delights our senses. Those are the seasons when praising God and serving God, making dinner and doing the dishes, laughing with children and saying a kind word to a stranger flow naturally from a grateful, happy heart.
Then there are the shadowy patches, down in the valley, when the mountaintop moments are few and far between. Without even a dappling of light, darkness stretches long before us. Those are the seasons when singing often stops and we fall silent. Praising God and serving God, making dinner and doing the dishes, are difficult tasks in the dark.
As I walked in and out of patches of morning light, while going through my own dark season at the time, I thought of the expression “the dark night of the soul,” originated by St. John of the Cross, a sixteenth-century monk (Brittanica.com). That phrase describes those seasons of darkness, even despair, in a believer’s heart, when one feels abandoned by all except God. St. John of the Cross believed that traveling through such sorrowful seasons while holding on to God Himself leads to a profound spiritual awakening.
I believe it is also important that we carry back into the sunshine what we could only have mined in the darkness. For
there are lessons about God’s nature and the experience of His nearness that can only be discovered during our soul’s darkest night.
In the shadowlands of suffering we learn the comfort of God; the long-suffering nature of God continues as we suffer long, and the steadfast surety of our Savior becomes all we have when life is unsteady and unsure.
There in the valleys we find Him more faithful than we could have imagined when our faith was at its highest hilltop. Some of God’s most beautiful qualities shine brightest in the dark.
Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned during my own long dark soul season was that God remains faithful when my faith is frayed. We are promised in 2 Timothy 2:13, that “if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.”
Though seasons change, God does not change like the shifting shadows above my head that morning (James 1:17). He remains the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He even said of Himself in Malachi 3:6,
For I am the LORD, I do not change.
In the Scriptures, when God describes His steadfast love for us, He uses the Hebrew word hesed, meaning loyal and unfailing, kind and good (Strong’s).
When the Lord passed before Moses, He proclaimed this about Himself:
The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. — Exodus 34:6 ESV
And in Isaiah 54:10, He promises this about His loyal love:
Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken.
Because of God’s hesed love for us we can sing from the shadows,
Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift up my hands. — Psalm 63:3–4 ESV
God remains loyal even when we are disloyal, faithful when we lack faith, steadfast when we are unsteady, unchanging when everything we hoped and longed for changes. Nothing can separate us from the hesed love of God (Romans 8:38–39).
Dear one, if you are in a dark season of the soul today, reeling from past hurts that continue to haunt you or present circumstances that threaten to undo you, it is my hope that you are able to mine the riches of the hesed love of God and carry it up and into the light when the clouds part. For now, persevere through the patchy places with praise upon your lips and trust within your heart. Remain steadfast in your praise, because He remains steadfast in His praiseworthiness! He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13).
Consider the psalmist’s good reminder to our souls:
My heart is steadfast, O God! I will sing and make melody with all my being!... I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. — Psalm 108:1, 3–4 ESV
The faithfulness of God stretches up to (and well beyond) the same clouds that block out the sun and cast shadows upon us. Therefore, we must remain committed to persevering beneath them! His steadfast love fills the heavens—the same massive celestial skies that we celebrated and praised God for yesterday. His love and faithfulness extend beyond what even the Hubble Space Telescope can see. Allow the thought to propel you along as you persevere in praise and rejoice in His goodness today.
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him. — James 1:12
We are able to persevere in loving God because He loved us first.
He helps us to cultivate a trust in Him that surpasses the clouds, even as we walk through the shadows they cast upon us. All that God teaches us in the light, we can cling to in the dark. And all that He has illuminated in the darkness, we can then carry with us when the sun shines warm upon our upturned faces once more.
Faithful, loving, steadfast God, thank You that You are with me both in the lightest of days and through darkest of nights. Strengthen me, Lord, to persevere and continue to praise and thank You, whatever might befall me. Amen.
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Written for Devotionals Daily by Wendy Speake, author of A Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving.
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Your Turn
Are you in a dark season? You’re not alone. God hasn’t changed, He is faithful, and His hesed love for you will never change. He is with you, so continue to praise Him! Sing, even if you're in the shadows. ~ Devotionals Daily