“For you are my lamp, O Lord;
the Lord shall enlighten my darkness.”
2nd Samuel 22:29

Our journey through this lifetime sometimes leads us through deep trials and they can be overwhelming. Sometimes our trials will reduce us to a heap of suffering in the darkness. At times like that the Lord seems far away and the heavens brass. For the believer it can be terrifying when it feels like he can’t reach God. The isolation. The feeling of abandonment. The fear. The hopelessness. The darkness.

But it’s an illusion. It’s not that the Lord isn’t there, it’s that we’ve been blinded to his presence because of the intense darkness of our suffering. Whether we feel it or not, the presence of the Lord has not left. He said, “I will NEVER leave you nor forsake you.”

Most people have read “Footprints.” Briefly, a person sees the footprints of the Lord alongside his own footprints as the two walked through the journey. But suddenly the person cries out when there appears only one set ofn footprints. Fearing the Lord has forsaken him, he shrieks in fear. But the Lord tells him that where there is only one set of footprints, “that’s where I carried you.”

There is great wisdom in that. There are times in our lives when all we can do is wait on the Lord, knowing that no matter how severe the suffering, or how distant it seems that God is, the fact is that he truly, truly will never leave or forsake his own. Only in retrospect, when the darkness passes and morning comes, then the believer will see that truly the Lord enlightened his darkness and carried him through the storm.

Wait patiently, later you will see. You’ll find what God has made out of your suffering, and you will rejoice. Trust him!