When Darkness Hides His Face

Prayers offered in the night when the darkness of the sky represents the spiritual darkness that I since are heard. Again and again as I read the scriptures I see an invitation to anchor my confidence in the promises and person of Jesus Christ and not to give up but to be faithful in prayer. "I've lost all hope in life", I have heard people say. Hope can be lost only if you place it in the wrong thing. Hope placed in God will not leave me ashamed because, "God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us." Romans 5:1-5 Because of this hope I continue to pray in the night.

I have pictures on my refrigerator of children in whose lives I've invested. I hear reports of what they are doing now and it makes me sad. Should I give up and stop praying? Have I given up all hope in them? Is that the right question? I don't think so. What I see in Scripture is that hope involves patience and endurance because I don't hope for what I see but for what I believe. Hope is bound up in faith and faith gives me an assurance of what I cannot see. Because of my hope I choose to pray not because of what I see but because of the one in whom I believe.

I think that two of my enemies favorite tactics are discouragement and anxiety. When I read the book of Ezra I see the enemy using these two weapons. God had spoken to his people through His prophets that if they did not obey His word that they would go into captivity for seventy years. When the seventy years was up and they were back in their land rebuilding the temple they became discouraged. They were being threatened constantly by their enemy. The ones among them who remembered the former glory of the temple that had been destroyed were disappointed that Zerubbabel's temple did not compare with it in size or in beauty. Because of their discouragement they stopped the work.

Isn't this the way it works? When the darkness of doubt and difficulty cloud my spiritual vision I want to give up and just live in the moment. Hope calls me to base my actions not on what I see but what I believe. When the people in Ezra's day stopped work on the temple and just focused on their on houses and their own comfort God sent them two prophets. Haggai and Zechariah, through their prophecies, pull back the curtains of heaven. The people were given an eternal perspective and hope was reborn.

There was a song written by Edward Mote in 1834 one of the verses says, "When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil." And so I continue to offer my prayers in the night. When the darkness of doubt or fear hides His face I choose to persevere because I believe in the end the love of God will be poured out.