Daily Devotionals

Devotional: April 14th

"When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me." ― Micah 7:8.

He will, thou prophet of the living God! More happy art thou in this thy strong and well-warranted persuasion than if a tiara of the most effulgent diamonds were set upon thy brow, to light up the chamber of thy darkness. Didst thou always know this? Couldest thou from the beginning look thus serenely along the paths of life, conscious that betide whatever might, thou shouldst enjoy the manifested presence of thy God?

Perhaps not. Perhaps there was a period in thy life when thou hadst indeed a strong conviction of the incomparable desirableness of such an assurance, and hadst a belief in its attainableness, but couldest not possess thyself of the privilege. Without this distinct perception of a present God, thy Saviour, Friend, and Guide, life seemed an odious blank. For this thou wert willing to sacrifice all things, and deem thyself an infinite gainer by the exchange. But how enter this hidden life? By faith, was the answer. But how believe? Oh how immense this difficulty seemed to one accustomed to the death-state of the soul, to unbelief, to the insane vision that perceives everything save Him by whom all things subsist. But he that had given thee so much faith as to perceive the all-surpassing blessedness of a life in which God is throughout consciously intermingled, forsook thee not; and soon enabled thee to open wide the eye of faith, and behold Him gloriously nigh, overpoweringly manifest; enabled thee to take into thy very soul his indestructible promise to abide with thee as thy Helper, Lover, and Satisfier, for ever.

When God gives faith, he gives the opportunity of proving it. He loves the sweet expression of it in confidential words, loves still better the exhibition of it in indubitable acts. "Thou shalt sit in darkness," he says to his trusting servant. But first he leads the believer along some flowery walk, and accustoms him to a high measure of spiritual prosperity. Then suddenly an unexpected tempest gathers about him, and he finds himself in deepest, strangest night. Darkness is come; but it is different in some of its elements from what the believer had contemplated in the day of his declared faith. Yes, designedly different. It was needful that his darkness should be something never anticipated, in order that his faith might have its full proof. The darkness seems to say, " God is not in me, I am sent in wrath. Thy faith is presumption. I am come to banish from thee the promises which thou hast hitherto delighted in ― to dispel the delusive idea of God thy Comforter. Despair is the only thing that harmonizes with me." The shadow thus speaks and frowns. But faith comes nobly out of this conflict. It lets not go its talisman. It seizes the word of God with a compulsory grasp. Immediately the believer is compassed about with light, and looks with an air of complacent triumph at the baffled shadow.

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