Weeping may endure for the night,

....     but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5b). There is a concept called the dark night of the soul that originated with the 16th-century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross. It has come to refer to the feelings one feels,  in spiritual crises,  that can perhaps best be described by this phrase. The Lord first underlined this morning's verse for me at a time of great difficulty in my life.  I had needed to make a decision in order to survive, and it was killing me. Shortly afterwards I was sleeping on an overnight flight to England. The Lord woke me up to watch the movie “Sense and sensibility.” It is a love story that concerns the agonizing struggle of two people of integrity in love,  that because of their integrity, you are sure can never work out. Long story short, it does, and at the end of the movie,  the Lord spoke this morning's verse into my heart.  

That was years ago, and though the situation is still not fully  resolved, the  dark night of my soul has ended.  And I can clearly say that I would not be the same man if I had not gone though it, and I can  now thank the Lord,  and I have thanked the other person, for what happened. You see there was a lot of refining that needed to take place in my life, and I needed to know who I am in Christ. In the darkness,  I clung to the promise that God is actively at work for my good.  And I have come to see that part of that good,  is that He was transforming me to be more like Christ,  and to be fruitful (Romans 8:28, 29).  It also drew me much closer to Him. I have often said that you don't know that God is all you need, until God is all you've got. And I had certainly lost what was most precious to me.

Through it all His Word also came alive to me, particularly the Psalms that had up to that point been a closed book. I learned from David to council myself “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance” (Psalm 42:5). I learnt that God is not taken by surprise in any of this. In particular, there are seasons of life, there is “A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:4).  Indeed, there is the dark night of trouble and there is the  bright morn of rejoicing.  When we choose to trust Him in it,  and through it letting patience have its perfect work (James 1:4), we are being conformed to the death of the One who,  for the joy that was set before Him,  endured the cross despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2).

Father, the words of an old song are coming to me as I write and meditate on these things this morning. “Through it all, through it all, I've learn to trust in Jesus, I've learnt to trust in God.”  It's not always easy, but I can dance in worship as You rejoice over me with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).  And I thank You again this morning Lord, for  promises fulfilled and promises yet to be fulfilled in Jesus Name Amen