RICHES OF DARKNESS AND THE IDOL OF CERTITUDE

And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness—
      secret riches.
   I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord,
      the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.
~ Isaiah 45:3  (emphasis added)

Last night at church, our guest speaker, Stephen Lungu, shared his dramatic story along with four "D"s that God uses to discipline us.  I was encouraged both by his story and his observation of how God hones us toward holiness.

The four "D"s of God's discipline according to Stephen Lungu:

1. Darkness.  God often brings us into times of darkness and possibly chaos and confusion.  But He also promises us that those times contain riches we could not see otherwise (Isaiah 45:3).
2. Delay.  God sometimes purposely makes us wait.  
3. Discrimination.  Sometimes God will seem to bless everyone around us except us.  He does this so that we learn to bless Him even when He blesses others.  And sometimes as He blesses others, their blessings overflow into our lives.
4. Discomfort.  Similar to how God brought Elijah to the brook of Cherith and then dried up the brook so that Elijah would go to the widow's place, He will sometimes bring us discomfort so that we learn to go and bless others.

God also showed me during the service that I had been holding on to the idol of certitude.  I had been wanting so desperately to know the answers to some of the unresolved questions in my life that I had been spending inordinate amounts of physical and mental energy pursuing those answers.  And I did this at the cost of being able to relax into God's love for me.  Somehow, it was knowing that God uses Darkness, Delay, Discrimination and Discomfort that helped me leave the need to be certain on the altar and hold only to Jesus again.