Into Your Own Darkness
Posted by anthologycreative
I feel so alone. How many times have you said those words? Maybe you really were alone and felt destitute and abandoned. Maybe you were in a room full of people, but you felt nameless, faceless, overlooked, and misunderstood in the middle of the crowd. Perhaps you said those words during a dark time in your relationship with God when He seemed far away and hard to reach. But is God ever really far away?
Read Psalm 139:7-12. Read verses 11-12 aloud.
What did David observe about the presence of God in this passage?
According to these verses, is God ever far away? Why or why not?
Is that comforting or disconcerting to you? Explain.
What attributes of God’s nature does the psalmist point out?
What do you suppose would make David want to hide from God?
Is there any secret sin in your life that you have attempted to hide from God?
In what dark situation in your life does God seem distant right now?
What steps will you take this week to seek God in that situation?
David is known as a man after God’s own heart, but Israel’s great king also dealt with some major sin during his life. In 2 Samuel 11, we read that he slept with another man’s wife, then had him killed! Yet in worship David proclaims that God is always near him and no matter where he goes, he can’t hide from God.
God is so invested in finding you that He will follow you into even the darkest places. Even in the bleakest moments of your life, take comfort that God is there. Is your family situation bleak? God is there with you. Have you run to busyness or sex or some other addiction to escape the pain you feel? God is there, too. No matter what your situation, it is not too dark for God. He is determined to seek you—and darkness is no obstacle for Him!
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night”—even the darkness is not dark to You. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to You.
—Psalm 139:11-12
Adapted from ec magazine. © 2010 LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Used by permission.
Posted in Boys, Devotions | Tagged Camp Crestridge, Camp Ridgecrest, ec Magazine, LifeWay Christian Resources, Ridgecrest Summer Camps, Weekly Devotions