In 1642, theologian Thomas Fuller stated, “The darkest moment is just before sunrise.”
Scientific evidence reveals it is midnight. However, during times of warfare—be it mind, soul, or spirit—the darkest hour is the hour the enemy seems to have an upper hand. With hope lost, we can’t see the sun on the horizon.
The majority of our day is filled with daylight. When you’re hurting, things seem to be more manageable during the day, but night has the darkest hours—and what feels like the longest. If you have been hurt, you know the feeling. You can’t sleep or even see past the night. The nights feel long, exhaustive, and excruciating—taunting us that light is just around the corner. Maybe it’s because night is quieter, nothing is on TV, everyone has gone home, and the phones have stopped ringing. Distractions have ceased.
Light is joy, peace, and victory. Light holds the answers to all the questions we ask in the dark. It may seem easier to deal with pain in the day, but that’s because we clean up, put a smile on, and cover our sorrow with pretty shiny bows. If that doesn’t work, we store our sorrow in a place called avoidance. But at night, those not-so-easy-to-look-upon failures and hurts reveal themselves all at once from the places they hid when the sun beamed high. This can seem unbearable.
Our warfare’s triumph is just before dawn. In dark times we believe night will be followed by more night—that it will never end. But the truth is night will always be followed by morning if you can endure the darkest hour.
Fight to endure the pangs of darkness. Look forward to the light waiting just around the corner—the light that has been in you the whole night.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)
Jennifer Gray is a Thought Catalog published author of encouraging and thought-provoking material which she transcribes in an attempt to challenge the reader to seek truth, then change. She is the wife of a correction’s officer and the mother of four peculiar yet curious children. She is an investigative researcher, a philanthropist, a member of her local church’s street ministry, a drawing artist, a motivational speaker, and a singer. She finds that being among different people, changing environments, challenging cultures, and away from comfort zones provides for the healthiest research.