Promises in the Darkness

Isaiah 46:4 "Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you."-

No one ever said the Christian walk would be easy. As my pastor is fond of saying, if you aren't in trouble or coming out of trouble, then you are probably heading for it. The greater you allow God to use you, the more you can expect the enemy to come against you as well. While we all enjoy the mountaintop it is in the valley that our character is refined. It is where we grow and mature. It is also the valley that allows us to appreciate the mountaintop all the more. Noted preacher and author, A.W. Tozer once surmised, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply." It is the storms of life that allows us to appreciate the calm. Yet, while we are in the midst of the storm it can seem like forever and it is where our faith is tested. Joseph spent years in prison for something he didn't even do. It was during this time that he grew even closer to God and was able to see Him move in his life. It is the same for us today. In our darkness we have the light of God and He has spoken promises to us that we cannot forget in our storm. We tend to concentrate so much on getting out of the valley that we fail to see why God has us in it to begin with. There are many verses in the bible which relay the promises of God but perhaps the most succinct is found in this single verse from writings of the prophet Isaiah. These are the promises we need to hold onto in the darkness.

The first is that God does not change. Isaiah tells us that even to our old age and gray hairs, "I am he"; God does not change beloved. God is the only thing consistent in an ever inconsistent world:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. - Hebrews 13:8

In Joseph's life God spoke to him through dreams when he was still a teenager. These dreams spoke of blessings in Joseph's life, with his family bowing down to him. Yet from that point on Joseph would experience one valley after another for over a decade. He was almost killed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused after doing the right thing, thrown in prison for something he did not do and then forgotten in prison by someone who had promised to help him. All in all, not a great 13 years or so. But God never changed during this time of Joseph's life. God stayed consistent. When his brothers wanted to kill him, God ensured that he would instead end up in Egypt. From there Joseph ended up in the house of Potiphar and the bible tells us God was with him:

The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. - Genesis 39: 2-4

After Potiphar's wife falsely accused Joseph and he ended up in prison, God was still God and did not change:

But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. Genesis 39: 20-23

No matter what the darkness was , Joseph did not allow his faith to waver because he knew who God was. He knew that God does not change. In a world that was filled with inconsistency for Joseph, God was still his rock. Even to his old age and gray hairs, God was God. He will always be God to you too beloved. Don't let the storms distract you or discourage you. God is in all of them and He does not change.

The second promise in this Isaiah verse is that God will sustain you. The dictionary defines sustain as:

1)       to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of

2)       to keep (a person, the mind, the spirits, etc.) from giving way, as under trial or affliction.

God is promising you here that he will support you, hold you, and bear you up even bearing the weight of your very situation! The second definition is even more incredible! If you are under trial or affliction, God is promising to keep you even your very mind and spirit from giving way! These trials and afflictions are the very storms and valleys we have been talking about. God is promising here to sustain you. He will hold you up and keep you from giving into your situations. I am sure it always seems like our situations are unique in their pain and suffering but the Apostle Paul assures us:

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1Corinthians 10:13

God will not give you more than you can handle. He will sustain you. He will bear the weight of your valley Himself and provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Through it all, He will keep your mind and spirit from giving way; from giving up. He is with you in your storm and will sustain you.

The third promise in this verse from Isaiah is that we have a purpose. God is reminding us here that it He who made us. As the old expression goes, God doesn't make junk. He made you with a specific purpose and destiny in mind. Here is this promise expanded:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2: 6-10

We are the very workmanship of God! We have been created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do! He has made you and if He made you, He will carry you if He has to! That is the fourth promise in this verse from Isaiah. There will be times in our lives when the storms are too fierce and the valleys are too deep. It is at those very moments that we sink to our weakest and God manifests Himself at His strongest. For it is only through our weakness, when we are utterly dependent upon God that we allow Him to be strong in us and through us. The Apostle Paul teaches us this principle:

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2Corinthians 12:7-10

God's grace is always sufficient for us. When we are at our weakest, God is at His strongest in our lives. That is why the valley is so needed in our walks. If everything was a mountaintop, we would rely on ourselves all the time and never allow God to manifest His awesome power in our lives. Don't worry about getting too weak, because He has promised us that in that darkest of hours, He will carry us.

The last promise we can hold onto from this Isaiah verse is that God will rescue us as well. He understands that sometimes circumstances become so severe that sustaining us will not be enough; carrying us will not be enough. Instead, we will need rescuing. Peter talks about this:

and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) -- if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 2Peter 2:7-9

God is promising you in the height of your storm; He can rescue you if necessary. He was able to rescue Daniel in the lion's den. Daniel needed God to sustain him when he refused the King's meat and lived on lentils. He needed God to carry him when he interpreted the King's dreams. But when he was thrown into the lion's den he needed some rescuing! He needed someone to shut the mouths of the lions! Even King Darius knew what Daniel needed when he cast him into the den:

So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!" Daniel 6:16

And rescue Daniel He did. He is making the same promise to you today as well. Whatever lion's den you find yourself in, God will rescue you too if you continually serve Him.

Promises in your darkness beloved. Promises right from the heart of God for His people. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He made you with a purpose. He will sustain you in your desert. He will carry you in your valley. He will rescue you in your storm. Stop looking for the way out and instead search for His hand. Hold onto His hand tighter as the storm grows, knowing all the promises He has made you are always yes and amen.

The Gospel of Mark tells us a story of how we need to act in our storms:

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" Mark 4:35-38

You already have Jesus in your boat beloved. When the storm comes against us we can panic and wonder where God is, when He has always been in our boat; right alongside of us. Just as He rested in this storm, He expects us to do the same in the storms of life. Rest comfortably in the promises He has made you. They were made to see you through the darkness. Amen.

Anthony Wade September 17, 2008