The Bible doesn’t promise us that we won’t go through dark times searching for a song in our dark night. On the contrary, Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble…”
Man! Where is the Good News in that?
(And, is it even possible to sing and worship while we are feeling our way down a dark and lonely road?)
My answer to that last question used to be, “Are you kidding? No way!” because I often walked down dark paths of discouragement and depression. I would resent what was happening. I would read all those Bible promises about God’s protection, and I would think, “Yeah, sure.”
In the darkest night
I kept making the same wrong turn I my thinking.
I believed that old lie, “I must have done something wrong otherwise these things wouldn’t be happening to me.”
And, it was that kind of “thinking,” that threatened to drown all my faith in dark seas of doubt and unbelief.
Then one day, I discovered a favorite quote by a man named Charles Price, that completely transformed my thinking.
Even in the darkest night the redeemed soul still sings. –Charles Price
So I began to wonder, “Is there a link between singing and hope? Is that the key?”
Truthfully, when I am walking through dark days, the absolute last thing I feel like doing is singing!
But, I was drowning in my own despair.
I had to try something.
Singing our song in the night…
It’s not easy is it?
Take it from one who battled unsuccessfully with depression for many years.
Yet, I learned this truth: Whether I felt like it (or not) if I sang songs of comfort, songs of faith, and songs of hope–my depression had to bow to the power of my worship!
So I sang–songs to myself.
I didn’t feel like it. But I was in a battle with hopelessness, and I was feeling desperate, and I learned–desperation is a great motivator!
Instead of surrendering to the darkness, I ignored how I was feeling, and I sang…
I sang, and I sang, into my night.
Another Cup of Hope
Then one morning, as I was sipping my morning cup of tea, I remembered Emilie’s book, A Cup of Hope.
I found a copy on Amazon and I started reading it every day.
Emilie knew exactly what it was like to struggle while walking through dark days.
Now, here’s another of her “gems” that she offers us on HOPE:
… hope is a Person–the person of Jesus Christ… with Christ, hope always has the last word. *
God’s Word: Always has the last word!
When I sing, and find my “song in the night” from God’s Word, I find Jesus, The Light of the World!
- But no one asks, ‘Where is God, my Maker, who gives us songs in the night… Job 35:10 NCV
- O God-Enthroned in heaven, I lift my eyes toward you in worship. Psalm 123: 1 TPT
- The Lord alone is our radiant hope and we trust in him with all our hearts. His wrap-around presence will strengthen us. Psalm 33: 20 TPT
- So I cried out to you, Lord, my only hiding place. You’re all I have, my only hope in this life, my last chance for help. Psalm 142: 5 TPT
Our fourth cup
How did you do with your hope assignment last week?
Did you find someone to share your cup of hope with?
I love the encouragement I found in Brian Simmons, The Divine Romance this morning…
“Many people live in a state of turmoil… They long for truth but need to encounter it through you. When you show unconditional love, when you have a different approach to life, and convey hope in times of hopelessness, people notice. Weary hearts need a touch from God, He wants to touch them through you.” Brian Simmons–Point The Way
Just about everyone has a mailman or favorite postal worker, right?
This week’s homework is to encourage your mailman, or UPS, or FedEx delivery person. Perhaps a thank you card, a homemade cookie, or some of those mini-cupcakes?
Father,
Show us where to share our cups of hope this week. Help us point the way to You, for Your hope gives songs in the night, and will always have the last word.
In Jesus Name, amen.
* Emilie’s “gems” are shared with the permission of Harvest House Publishers. They are: Taken from: A CUP OF HOPE by Emilie Barnes, Copyright © 2000, Published by Harvest House Publishers
Photos courtesy of: Unsplash
My “Thanks!” and Photo credits go to: photographers, Frank McKenna, Neonbrand, Anton Darius, Thiago Barletta, Emanuela Picone, and Anita Austvika
Women With Destiny 
I have one special memory of where singing brought hope.
It was a dark windy and wet night in mid November. Our family had moved from our tarp in the woods to a little place close to a building where we could get some power. I needed it for my machine that dispenses medicine for asthma. We had collected a few boxes to shelter in but it was not enough. The winter winds brought the temperature down to around 0 Celcius. The rain made things worse because we could not get dry and had no other clothes. Being hungry didn’t help. Earlier in the evening I ate some bird seed to stave off the hunger pangs but ended up vomiting them out due to an allergic reaction.
Sometime early in the morning while it was very, very dark the cold was too much. All I could hear was my two daughters and wife’s teeth chattering. I knew I had to get the tarp from our other encampment or we would die of hypothermia. I got up and started the 1/2 mile trek through the frozen muddy field to the forest where the tarps were.
I was terribly discouraged. We had been homeless for weeks so far and the hopelessness over my family’s situation just overwhelmed me. As I stumbled across the field I started to sing Jesus Loves Me. The wind didn’t stop, nor did the rain but I felt a change. Somehow I felt Jesus with a host of angels beside me singing along. Our chorus must have touched heaven for I felt such hope that I knew I could make it. I did get the tarp and bring it back. The warmth of our bodies under the tarp kept us from freezing to death and that song kept my hope alive.
Thank you for this post.
Blessings,
Homer Les
http://www.uncompromisingfaith.ca
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I, too have a story 🙂
My brotherinlaw had been terribly injured, impaled on rebar in a fall from a vat of acid. It was the rebar or the acid.
We had been going through emergency after emergency surgery always returning to the ICU when we thought he was only hrs from hospital release.
It was the fifth month, I was exhausted from crisis, working full time, taking care of others, and nights walking the hospital corridors as we faced another emergency surgery.
This night we were told that even if they saved his life they did not think they could save his leg. I looked around at the faces in the waiting room. Hopelessness was all I saw. I went to the chapel down the hall, got on my knees and said, “God, I have to KNOW what to do. Are we facing death? Have we run out of options?”
I opened the only bible, full of Hebrew writing, but the Psalms in the back were in English. God pointed me straight to a Word that gave fresh HOPE. But the promise was conditional, “SING!”
I went and got my sister, took her back to the chapel with me, we sat in the floor, and all night long we sang every hymn from our childhood we could remember.
The pastor who had been waiting with the family came to the chapel and said, “You have no idea how you have helped me this night.”
A few hrs into our impromptu praise service one of the doctors came out of surgery and said, “We believe we have saved his life… now we are going to try to save his leg.”
God’s promise had been, “… none of his bones shall be broken.”
I write this 20 yrs later with tears running down my face.
Good Grace is the song I posted today on Twitter.
Yes! Good Grace ~ GOOD GOD!
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