sometimes god does his best work in the dark

By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with us - Psalm 42:8
​
Sometimes God does his best work in the dark.

When we’re feeling most pressured or most purposeless, when we’ve delayed celebrations and put our plans on hold because of the uncertainty of the future, when we don’t know what’s coming next, when we don’t know how to mourn for what we’ve lost, when we experience an increase in fear and anxiety, when we see division, injustice and unrest… God is still rejoicing over us with singing and still works all things together for our good. Sometimes God does his best work in the dark.  


Some of us have been talking about these last few months as “tomb time” because we just haven’t been able to see what God is doing. But the tomb of Jesus tells us, God is always at work to turn what is meant for evil to good.


And, in this time I believe God is clearly wanting to do a work in us - as individuals and as a church -so that we are better aligned to his purposes. And thinking about the tomb is actually really helpful just now, because when Jesus left the tomb he took nothing with him he didn’t need. He left his grave clothes folded. He didn’t carry with him the things that signified loss, death, failure, the past... He walked into his resurrected future with power and purpose.
I believe God has been speaking to many of us in this time about things we need to take off, lay down, and leave behind - like the grave clothes. For some of us that may be ministries we need to let go of. For others it is unhelpful habits or relationships we need to walk away from. Others need to recognise we have burdened ourselves with things we are not meant to carry. Some of us need to find our identity in Christ, not in the validation we receive from other people or our status in the church or the world. These things burden us, and God wants us to lay them down and leave them behind. We can’t expect to bring healing and liberty to others if we haven’t received it for ourselves. Let’s allow him to crucify that stuff in us.


Because he something better for us. He is in the business of resurrecting us.


The evidence that God works all things together for good is all around us. Social distancing did not lead to social disfunction; it led to communities coming together in a totally different way. Established systems are being challenged. Kindness and self-sacrifice are changing priorities and outlooks.


But... there is an increase in poverty, a lack of justice, division in society. And the church must address this. I believe God is raising up social justice warriors right now. Men and women of integrity who will speak to effect Kingdom change. And I see him moving people out of the church. People who once would have seen themselves as having a church-based ministry are discovering that what they have done so far has simply been training for a new season of out-of-church ministry. God is calling you to cast your nets on the other side.
And the shift is happening quicker than we think. Exodus tells us it only took a night (another dark time) for a million Israelites to move from one land to another. In this time everyone is being given the opportunity to choose to cross over - to choose to align themselves with what God is doing.


And, you know, the same power that held back the sea and raised Christ from the dead is in us. We can lay the old stuff down. We can walk confidently into the new that God has for us.
Sometimes God does his best work in the dark and we just need to ask him to help us see what he’s doing and say ‘yes’ to it.