When Light Seems Hidden

Welcome to Hope Mommies In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be narrowing in on specific truths of the gospel to learn how they direct and inform us in our grief. As we study these truths together, we’d love you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you dig into God’s Word each week with us! 

Back view of a sad woman standing alone in a misty morning. Shot in the mountain

“For it is you who light my lamp;
    the Lord my God lightens my darkness.”
Psalm 18:28

READ:

In grief, while God and His Word stayed the same, I had changed.

“When you are shocked and dismayed at the death of someone you dearly love, it can be tempting to doubt God’s goodness, mercy, faithfulness, and love. You don’t feel loved. You don’t feel like you are the object of God’s goodness…Wander down into a dark, windowless basement. The door accidentally locks behind you. You can’t see any light or feel the sun’s warmth. Did the light stop shining? No.”
Paul David Tripp

You might be in the basement where no light seems to be shining. Or you might feel like the connection point between what you believe and what you feel has become separated. I understand.

As mourners, we can allow time for God to restore the places in us that are entirely disjointed after devastation. Alongside giving ourselves that freedom, we can focus our cries on the truths of Scripture. Tuning our grief to the notes and tones of the gospel, we examine the gospel and what it’s composed of and then use those notes to help form our prayers, cries, and sobs before the Lord. Over time as we grieve, the truth will influence our feelings as we lay this process before God.

When bringing ourselves to Scripture to ask of it—Is God compassionate? Does He love?—we find that Scripture speaks the most resounding “yes” possible. As you read of God’s gospel love, I invite you to ask that God would provide ways for your heart’s cries to tune in to these themes—even as you feel these truths are very distant or when there are pieces of God’s character you cannot seem to love today.

REFLECT:

1. In what ways does Scripture light our path in the midst of the darkness of grief?
2. Read John 1:1-5. What does these verses reveal about the source of our Light?