I took half a dozen pictures of the sunset, and the few minutes between photos made them look like half a dozen different sunsets – gold, orange, fuchsia, purple, all the blues in the world.
And here’s the thing I learned about sunsets that night: The stuff that makes the colors visible is there all along. The molecules and particles that make those colors are there when the sun is high, but we just don’t see them. The sun has to get lower and lower – and then drop out entirely – before we see those amazing colors.
And if you feel like your light has gone out, you don’t have any answers, you’re out of ideas, and everything is threatening to go very dark, consider this:
Everything we need is still right here. God has unexpected color and answers and joy for you in this time, and He is positioning things so you can start to see them.
You, oh children of Light, are made brighter and more beautiful for all the dirt and clouds you’ve had to shine through.
Do not fear the darkness. The world is not going to drop out from under you. He has you firmly held. The sun is going to rise again soon. And He has more color to show you then, too.
In a season when I desperately needed color, the Lord led me to Luke 1:45, a verse I didn’t have memorized. And by “the Lord led me to it” I don’t mean I happened to stumble upon the verse while I was reading the book of Luke. I mean, it was a series of only-God-could-have-done-that coincidences that He made very obvious so I couldn’t possibly ignore them, and it spoke exactly to something I had been praying about.
Here it is:
And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.
— Luke 1:45
You can bet I’ve memorized the verse by now. And even now, He keeps bringing it up, asking me if I’ll keep believing for big things, trusting Him more than ever, regardless of what things look like.
Will I look to the gorgeous view? Or will I focus on the dirty window between me and that view — or on the warped reflection of what’s behind me?
Now is a time to be asking God for a bigger vision, for the next dream, for a clearer picture of the calling He’s placed on your life. This is a time for looking forward, not shrinking back.
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.– Isaiah 30:18
He waits, and we wait, and He blesses us for it. And I’m noticing here that He doesn’t ask us to do anything He hasn’t done Himself.
What if our bad news, our bombshells, our curveballs, were really good news in the long run? What if they were really for our favor, on our behalf, and resulted in a smack in the face of the enemy?
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.– Psalm 34:7, 17-19
He doesn’t have you stuck in the slow lane; you’re not stuck at all. He has you in a place of rest so He can move through you. Things are going on behind the scenes and under the surface that are in your favor, for your great joy. Just because you can’t see them yet doesn’t change the reality of their existence.
Whatever breakthrough you’ve been praying for, He hears you, He sees you, and He is working things out for your good, even (especially) when it’s hard.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
– Romans 8:28
God is a healer, deliverer, and beauty bringer, and we could not contain our excitement if we fully knew what He is up to in our situations. He is moving on our behalf, bringing justice, revival, and breakthrough as we surrender to Him.
So get in the Word, and get your hopes up.
The enemy feeds on fear and lies and despair. They’re practically his only weapons and they only work if people believe them. Hope brighter, stay in the Word, pray without ceasing. Those are unbeatable weapons, and the enemy is terrified of them.
These are days for learning more, loving deeply, praying hard, trusting God, leaning into scripture, practicing grace and repentance, forgiving and pressing on, discerning the times and asking for wisdom, speaking truth in love, and pushing through in obedience to the task in front of us.
These are not days to walk recklessly, impulsively, succumbing to our own knee jerk reactions, or to the pressure or enthusiasm of those without a plumb line for truth.
These are days to remember God is so very near to us, willing to speak and counsel, to correct and comfort, to bring hope and heal.
Just like every day. But we bear better fruit in these days when we remember it.
This is an excerpt from ABIDE volume two: Hope in the Waiting. You can find it here or anywhere books are sold.
