Incurable FaithSample

TREASURES IN DARKNESS

You have likely felt dread in the pit of your stomach upon hearing bad news. That is how I felt every time I thought, I have cancer. That thought took my breath away, so I inhaled peace by replac­ing it with this one: I have Jesus. The power of that beauti­ful name restores me.

Whatever diagnosis we receive, you and I have an invi­tation to a storehouse of blessing that is not limited to the healthy and able-bodied. Scripture tells us that the key to God’s treasure is reverence for the Lord (Isaiah 33:6). When we worship God during our trials, even the darkness of a hospital room or sick bed cannot hide the treasure He has for us, for He has promised: “I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord” (Isaiah 45:3).

Worship simultaneously frees us from the chains that bind us and opens the treasure that God wants to give us. I have experienced this. When pain has so utterly consumed me that I thought I could not live another moment in its grasp, I sought the Lord through praise. It took discipline for me to drop despair and pick up a key of praise, but honoring Him this way brings us freedom.

Satan wants to trap you in hopelessness, self-pity, and despair. He does not want you to find God’s treasures, because they will empower you for the victory of living an abundant life in Christ. But the keys of the enemy lead to death: death of joy, death of hope, and death of faith. These are not the keys that open the treasure vaults of God.

We should never fear entering the dark places in our lives when we have a Lord who has entered them first and bestows His gifts of victory on those who follow Him there. So do not fear the valley of the shadow, or run from it, or you will miss the beautiful treasures hidden in darkness.

Lord, forgive me when I turn my attention away from You and become entrapped by self-pity and despair. Show me the keys I have been using lately; take away any that are not of You. May the light of Your presence illuminate the treasures You have for me in my present darkness. Amen.