A night season is a period of time in your life when everything around you seems to be going wrong and God appears to be nowhere in sight. You are doing your best to walk with God and place Him first, but in the fiery trial, there is no answer from Heaven. You call out to God but there is no response. It may even feel like God is aloof, but He isn’t. God is with you in the night season. He is attentive to your situation and He is watching over you with great care. In fact, He is using this time to grow your faith and character so you are fully developed for His service. Consider it an honor; you are in training. And you haven’t done anything wrong either!
Even King David had to go through night seasons and learn how to trust God by faith during these times of testing. It was these trials that made David one of the greatest Kings that ever lived.
Psalm 13:1-6 – A psalm of David
“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.”
When life seems to be full of darkness and you don’t know which way is up, don’t be quick to make decisions. Wait upon the Lord and seek Him with all of your heart. At just the right time, He will make known to you which way to go. I have learned in my own life journey that the greatest maturing and life-defining moments happen as we wait upon the Lord during a night season. These are times to dig your heels in regardless of the way things look and trust God. He has a good plan for your life and He is with you!
Job, the man of God who literally lost everything, said this when he was going through a night season,
“But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:8-10 NIV).
Job felt that God was distant and far off, like He wasn’t there. But He was! God used that difficulty in Job’s life to refine him. It was a scary, stretching time. It was far beyond his comfort zone. Job couldn’t see the way forward, but he leaned upon the One who could see, the One who could see Him through the storm.
Only God knows when it’s right for the night season to end. You might think, Well, when will that be? It’s when the trial produces in us the type of character God is looking for so He can use us for His divine purposes.
I remember the first time I went through a night season. I didn’t know which way was up and my mind was plagued with all kinds of fear and doubt. I didn’t think I would ever get out of that dark pit of despair. It was impossible for me to do it on my own. Only God could do it, and He did! God used that trial to cause me to seek His face like I had never sought Him before. It was a time of purifying, a time to refine my motives and my heart toward God. And it caused God to become so much more real in my life. At the end of it, I asked God, “Where were you when I needed you most?” He replied, “Cory, I haven’t forgotten about you! I was with you the whole time.”
Looking back, that was one of the most pivotal points in my entire life, especially in my spiritual walk. What I thought was one of the darkest and scariest moments, ended up being one of the greatest spiritual growth spurts ever! God became alive to me. I encountered the God who could Deliver! He delivered me from that pit of depression and despair. I knew God in a new profound way – My Deliverer!
Can I encourage you not to give up on God when life looks bleak. God has not forgotten about you either. He is well aware of your circumstances. If He hasn’t removed something from your life yet, then there is purpose in it. He is faithful. Will you trust God in your night season?
