The presence of darkness does not mean the absence of God. 

Let me explain.

Lately I have been spending a lot of time studying Daniel. As a young man, he endured horrible things. His nation was attacked and capital city was besieged. Many of his friends and family members would have been killed. Picture homes and property going up in flames.

He was exiled to a foreign land, probably castrated, had his name changed, and was forced to serve a tyrannical king who had taken most of what he had known and loved.

It’s safe to say that he was surrounded by a lot of darkness.

A lot of people would surely have concluded that God was therefore absent.  ‘I guess the all of this hardship and pain means that God isn’t here.’

Not true.

God was at work—in Daniel, in his people, and even back in Judah.

We modern Christians can fall victim to short-sighted-ism. We quickly conclude that if we can’t see nice things happening in front of our faces every single day that God must have abandoned ship.

But that wasn’t true for Daniel, and it isn’t true for you. You may not understand why things are happening around you, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t somehow at work.

Life can be very challenging. But these are the moments we need to look to the Lord—the only one who can provide strength, wisdom and grace, and who can even bring good out of bad. As we are reminded in Romans 8:28: “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

The presence of darkness does not mean the absence of God.

Notes:

-“Is the presence of darkness the absence of God?” Click here. Sermon.
-Bible quotes are from the ESV.