“Who among you fears the LORD and listens to his servant? Who among you walks in darkness, and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him lean on his God. Look all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with torches; walk in the light of your fire and of the torches you have lit! This is what you’ll get from my hand: you will lie down in a place of torment.” 50:10-11
These verses refer to a phenomenon that many have called, “The Dark Night of the Soul.” Isaiah refers to someone who is groping in darkness and they have a choice. They can either trust in God and lean on him, or they can try to “figure things out for themselves,” that is to say; “kindle their own fire.” The result of that exercise is nothing short of torment and it is something we have all been through. As you serve God there will be times of doubt, times of uncertainty and times of darkness. There will be times when you are spiritually dry and unable to figure out what is going on. There will be times when you have no direction and you don’t know what to do next.
What is the answer to this uncertainty and this darkness? I see three things that we need to be reminded of. First, keep walking. The worst mistake you can make when you don’t have a clear word from God is to change direction, bail out or make massive life-altering decisions in the middle of the storm. Instead, you need to keep faithfully doing the last thing God told you to do until you get guidance for the next step. We rarely have the patience to wait for guidance so we change direction of our own accord. Keep walking in the same direction you were going when you last heard God’s voice. Second, lean on God and not your own understanding. We walk by faith and not by sight; even when you can’t hear His voice and He seems a million miles away and you feel as dry as dust… know that He is still there, He loves you and He cares. There is something He is trying to teach you in the darkness and silence and you need to lean into that and lean into Him. Trust Him regardless of what your circumstances say. Finally, don’t try to light your own torch, and start off without Him. In the absence of light and direction from God, we will sometimes try to manufacture it ourselves and that leads to nothing but problems and torment. In the end, you will wish that you had just been patient and waited quietly in the dark for God to speak again. Sometimes He leaves us with no direction so we will stop, breathe and listen. No matter how dark the night seems right now, the morning is coming. Be patient, “Weeping endures for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5
