The Dark Nights of Your Soul
Do you ever wake up in the morning feeling like you were in a wrestling match during the night? You laid in bed all night tossing and turning, worrying about the stuff of life. You wake up feeling more tired than when you went to bed. We all face challenges in life, and whether it is financial, physical, relational, vocational, medical, or emotional, not one of us is exempt from the bumps and bruises in life. Sometimes those bumps and bruises only cause a minor sore spot, other times the broken bone is sticking out of your leg.
Many times, both in the little skin bruises and the major bone breaks, we find ourselves in stress overload, and in the darkness of night, those dark nights of your soul, the issues often seem worse. Have you ever felt like that? Or maybe you feel as if you simply cannot get away from your hurts and pains, or worries and fears, and there is no place to rest your weary and worn down body and soul. Usually sitting in a rocking chair on your porch while reading a good book and listening to the birds calms your spirit, but right now, not even that soothes your soul.
You are not alone in experiencing those dark nights of your soul. God strengthened Jesus in his “dark night” at Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46). He restored Elijah’s hope during his dark night of loneliness on Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:1-18). And when Habakkuk wrestled with despair as he wondered why God seemingly was allowing the crimes of Judah to go unpunished, almost defiantly demanding an answer from God (Habakkuk 1:1–2:1), he receives assurance that God had a plan (vv. 2:2-3) on how He would deal with those who are unfaithful (vv. 2:4-20). Click here to read Habakkuk chapters 1-2.
In the first sixteen verses of chapter 3, as Habakkuk cries out for his dark night of the soul to end (1-3), God finally lays out His plan (4-16). And yet in the midst of Habakkuk’s continuing to wrestle with despair, the book ends with his expression of confidence in the Sovereign and Almighty God – “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights” (17-19).
First, let me say that I am in no way diminishing any struggles you might be facing, whether they be big or small. Now let me also say that we have a God who is both interested in your bumps and bruises AND who can also care for those bumps and bruises. In the secular world we often talk of people who have either responsibility but not authority or authority but no responsibility. Well, God has both!
So, I ask you – Are you stressed, worried or burdened? If that is you, then today, and every day, wherever you are, whatever you are facing, Jesus invites you to a place of rest. A place that is immeasurably better than that rocking chair on your porch. We find these comforting and inviting words in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” He goes on in verse 29 to promise us that we will “find rest for our souls” when we come to Him. And this is not a one-time offer; it is an offer with no expiration date and one that allows you to use it over and over again. Jesus meets you in the dark nights of your soul!