Turning Darkness into Light

Here’s a verse Jen came across the other day and shared with me.

You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD turns my darkness into light. (2 Samuel 22:29)

I like that. A lot. When darkness surrounds and pushes in around us, when it threatens to steal our hope and joy, when it becomes so overwhelming it seems we’ll never experience the warmth of the Son again, when darkness is that oppressive, that burdensome, that fear-inducing, I pray these words will echo in our hearts. Our Lord can turn even that kind of darkness (ie. sorrow, hurt, misery, fear, pain, suffering, confusion, angst . . .) into light.

He is more powerful and more brilliant than any darkness we could ever face.

Now, the corresponding verse in the psalms gives a slightly different twist to the wording. It says:

You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. (Psalm18:28)

Did you catch that? He keeps our lamp burning. That light of hope within us, the fire in our soul that He put there. With God on our side and in our hearts, no matter what life may throw at us, no matter what valley we must traverse, no matter how dark and palpable the darkness grows, there is always that spark of hope living within us. And if we give into Him and allow Him to stoke it, that spark can turn into a healthy fire, and that fire can turn into an inferno of hope and victory.

Only God can turn our darkness into light.