Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated light from the darkness.
I have been in dark places at different times in my life and could fill up pages and hours of stories. I will tell of some of them but will not elaborate much for reasons of time and space.
Some of you know my story of darkness in my childhood. A bad home life and an alcoholic father. I was afraid of…well I am not sure what, but the unstable life was hard. But where there is darkness there always seems to be some light. My brother was part of that light; he took care of me when I was afraid.
In 1 John 1:5 we read: “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you; God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.” I didn’t know the Lord at this time, but I believe that He put my brother there to show me the light that I would eventually learn about later in life.
Many of you know of the dark time in my life when I wanted so much to have children and couldn’t. This was probably the darkest time in my life. I had found the Lord by this time, but not being able to have children made me a little crazy, so crazy that I left my husband and church and went out in search of some ease from the pain of it. But that hole in my heart that was there all the time could not be filled. It was only the Lord that could fill it, but I couldn’t see it for the darkness that was pulling me away from Him. John 9:5 tells us: “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” I may have turned my back on God, but He was always there protecting me and waiting for me to come back to Him so He could fill that hole in my heart.
There was a time when I was on wheat harvest, and we had two young men with us. We were in Wyoming, a long way from home. One morning they were waiting on us to get to the field and decided to take a swim in the irrigation canal. While swimming, they hit some concrete pile-ons at the bottom of a spillway and it killed both of them. Here I was wanting children and 2 boys, 16 and 17 years old, in my charge were killed. It was very difficult to tell their parents and the journey from 1,000+ miles away to get them home was hard. At the time, I had a good church family, and they were the light that God used in this time of darkness.
“For you are all children of light and children of light of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness.” 1 Thessalonians 5:5
There are many times that I have struggled with the darkness trying to pull me in. When my mom died. When I was called to my dad’s side, who I had only seen a few times in 40 years. He was beaten up badly and some drug addicts were taking advantage of him. He was 86 years old, and we had to step in and take care of him. The enemy tried to pull me down into the darkness, reminding me of the bad home life I had as a child. But my wonderful Christian friends and church family held me and Dewitt up. Sometimes I would sit in the car and cry while Dewitt took care of my dad. My brother and sister asked me why I was doing it, and I told them that my Bible said to honor my Mom and Dad, and that’s what Dewitt and I did. (From the sermon on the 5th commandment a few months ago)
Recently, when we were caught off guard by Dewitt’s heart issues, I could feel the enemy pull at me. But my church family was lifting us up, praying for us, and visiting us during our 17 days at the hospital and even when we came home. God always sends us light whenever we need it. And now I am going through some health issues. I rarely have health issues; I have been so healthy all my life. The enemy sure tries to use this against me, but when I feel him tugging at me, I tell him that my Jesus is bigger, and he might as well get away from me. I have been pleading the blood of Jesus a lot lately and I know He has me and Dewitt in His hands and that darkness must flee.
When you feel the darkness pulling you in, always remember you have a Savior that is shining a light very brightly in your path.
The night is nearly over, and day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Romans 13:12
We want to thank Debbie Crosby for sharing this post.
Women's Ministry 