Prayer Power

Pray God's Word into Your Darkness
By Petey Prater

All of us experience crisis. Pits as well as peaks are normal for everyone. Some worldly-wise fellow said, “life is a series of peaks and valleys and the peaks are greased.”

Crisis can bring depression; depression suffocates joy. Emotional or spiritual discouragement sucks our energy, leaving us limp, immobile. But trouble can also force growth. Deep people grow in dark places.

How will we react when trouble comes?

Should we have a pity party? Go to bed hoping tomorrow brings a remedy? I’ve learned I can either grow or groan. And, I confess, sometimes I do both. Growth is God’s choice for me. I grow by searching my Bible and claiming His encouraging word for my bleak situation.

Studying God’s Word and praying is generally the last thing most of us want to do when heavyhearted. Yet that is the very thing we need to do first.

When darkness snuffs out my nightlight, God provides radiant insight in Scripture. If I will open the Word when I’m discouraged and eat the Bread of Life my dark attitude brightens. The situation may not change but my attitude does.

“For You cause my lamp to be lighted and to shine; the Lord my God illumines my darkness” (Psalm 18:28).

When dark days overtake you, actively trust God by applying His truth to the problem. Meditate on specific verses for encouragement. For example, this verse from Isaiah speaks hope. God’s challenge, through Isaiah, is to “trust in the name” and “rely on” Him.

• Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God (Isaiah 50:10).

I love this Amplified translation of that verse:

• Who is among you who [reverently] fears the Lord, who obeys the voice of His Servant, yet who walks in darkness and deep trouble and has no shining splendor [in his heart]? Let him rely on, trust in, and be confident in the name of the Lord and let him lean upon and be supported by his God (Isaiah 50:10 Amplified).

We grow in confidence and rely on God to support us when we:

• Choose to believe Scripture, letting His Word and promised presence remind us we are not alone.

• Deliberately lay our fears on God’s altar and look past circumstances to Christ.

• Trust and praise God in spite of problems. He is Lord of all circumstances and will give us either answers or grace. Let’s learn to lean so hard that we will fall if He moves.

Have you lost your shining splendor?

Render Praise.

Raise your darkling heart,

Impart your troubles to our God,

Rod of Leaning; Staff of Hope.

Father God, I trust Your Word. Your faithfulness is sufficient when darkness overwhelms my life. I lay my fears on Your altar and lean into Your comfort until this storm lifts. Thank You. Amen.

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Petey Prater is a Beaverton, OR, writer and speaker. She can be reached at peteyprater@yahoo.com. She writes poetry and devotionals and has contributed to two books
101 Stories of Answered Prayer, Jeannie St John Taylor and Petey Prater, AMG Publishers and Prayers for Troubled Times, Jeannie St John Taylor, AMG Publishers.