When Shadows Gather

When trials come and frustrations build, we often look for a way out from under the pressure. We may overlook the fact that God has a plan even for our emotionally rainy days. Many times, as problems linger long and sorrows grow tense, we forget that God is right beside us. He has not left us to battle our way through our difficulty alone.

Pastor and devotional author George Matheson shared a short devotion on Daniel 3:25 in a 1930 edition of The King’s Business:

“Walking in the midst of the fire” (Dan. 3:25).

The fire did not arrest their motion: they walked in the midst of it. It was one of the streets through which they moved to their destiny. The comfort of Christ’s revelation is not that it teaches emancipation from sorrow, but emancipation through sorrow. O my God, teach me, when the shadows have gathered, that I am only in a tunnel. It is enough for me to know that it will be all right someday. They tell me that I shall stand upon the peaks of Olivet, the heights of resurrection glory. But I want more, O my Father; I want Calvary to lead up to it. I want to know that the shadows of this world are the shades of an avenue—the avenue to the house of my Father. Tell me I am only forced to climb because Thy house is on the hill! I shall receive no hurt from sorrow if I shall walk in the midst of the fire.

Some of the greatest lessons we will learn come from time spent with God in the fires of affliction and rejection. If your world seems to be spiraling down, look up! If the heartache seems too much for you to bear, pray and ask your heavenly Father to hold you close. He will, and this will make a beautiful difference in the way you view the trouble that is besieging your heart.

Prayer: Father, I can see my way through the cloud that has gathered around me. I know You are near because Your Word tells me You will never leave me. Move close to my broken heart, O Lord, and show me how to worship You in this hour of need. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.