What Neil calls “extremely dark periods” other writers have called “the wall”, a “dark night of the soul”, and many other terms for the same thing: the comforting presence of God can’t be felt anymore amid painful events in one’s life.
I’d be curious to see, in the heavenly realms, what is going on just then… Has God stepped back? Is He just as close, but has numbed us for a while from feeling His presence? Are we more vulnerable to spiritual attack, or does He issue an order for special protection during that time? And of course, the unanswerable – why would He do this?
Neil’s answer is one of the best I’ve heard, and yet it still leaves me questioning: He has only suspended His conscious presence so that your faith will not rest on feelings or be established by unique experiences or blessings.
God’s more interested in my maturity than my comfort… In the end, I know who God is, and I trust Him. Those dark times in my life made me question (see the entry from July 9th, if you missed it), but I appreciate what Neil has to say: keep walking.
The test for me isn’t whether I can figure out why God is doing something, it’s how I’m going to respond. I may be tempted to call into question everything God has said or promised, but Neil says don’t: Never doubt in the darkness what God has clearly shown you in the light.
I’ll save that truth for a rainy day.
No comments:
Post a Comment