Thanking God in the Dark Places

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks;

for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Toni and I were in one of the darkest periods of our lives. In the previous four months, we had endured a campaign of slander, innuendos, and isolation, which culminated in the deepest betrayal we have ever suffered. I was broken, and both of us were discouraged, defeated, and disillusioned. We felt alone and abandoned. In desperation, we spent most of our days on our faces on the floor of our living room, crying out to God from our prayer spot.

One evening we decided to take a walk around our neighborhood. We were just trying to get some fresh air. Little did we know that God was about to give us a fresh perspective. It's about a 2-mile journey through cul-de-sacs and hills, and to be quite candid, I was so low that I could barely put one foot in front of the other. About a quarter of the way through the sub-division, one of us said, “Why don’t we try to list some of the ways we’ve seen God in the last four months? “ Looking back, we realize that it was the prompting of the Holy Spirit because neither one of us was in the frame of mind to initiate something like that. In obedience, we began taking turns recounting the various ways we could trace God's hand guiding, comforting, providing, and sustaining us through the extended period of pain and heartbreak we had just endured. We didn’t elaborate; we simply listed summary statements of how God had shown himself faithful to us during this time. As we continued walking, the oppression on our spirits began to lift, and the darkness in our hearts gave way to the light of His presence. Our steps grew lighter as our focus shifted from the pain of what had happened to us to the realization that God was with us through it all.

In what seemed like no time, we arrived back at our house with hearts full of gratitude and our spirits renewed. We rushed to the computer and we rehearsed our list from the walk so Toni could type it all out. We didn’t give full accounts; we simply recorded bullet-point summaries of the testimonies of God's faithfulness to us. Each bullet point was 1-3 lines. Our list was seven pages, single-spaced. Seven pages! That walk was a turning point for us. It was out of those ashes that God eventually gave birth to Forgiving Forward, through which He has done exceedingly above all we could have asked or imagined in using us to help countless people find freedom through forgiveness.

“God constantly encourages us to trust Him in the dark.”

A. W. Tozer

The point is this: God is always with us. He’s never not there and He is always working. God permits what He could prevent to bring about His greater glory and our greater good. He prevents what He could permit for the very same reason. We can see Him in everything. That’s why Paul could exhort us, “In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Our God can be trusted and is worthy of our thanksgiving and enduring praise even in what seems to be the most painful moments of our lives. We can find reason to praise Him in every situation we find ourselves in because He is always with us in them. I believe the mark of true faith is not thanking God in the good times—which we most certainly should do—but instead, thanking Him when everything seems the darkest and we don’t know how we’ll ever survive or recover.

Could it be that the only way we can find perspective in the dark times of our lives is to look for ways to thank God in the midst of them? God is always with us, even when we can’t see Him. Anytime we look back at the darkest times of our lives, we have always seen that He was there with us all along. I know the same will be true for you, too!

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