Sunday, June 21, 2009

Modern Christian Art: Mourning Into Dancing


Mourning into Dancing

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
~Psalm 30:11-12

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
~Genesis 1:2-3

I love how God can turn the bleakest, darkest, most miserable places into a place of dancing and rejoicing! That's what this artwork is all about.

In the beginning, there was darkness, and all God had to do was say, "Let there be light." And there was light! Do you know that God can breathe life into anything? Do you know that He can resurrect anything? Your relationships, your health, your financial situation, etc. Like the above Genesis scripture tells us, light came out of a dark place. All God had to do was speak. God can certainly speak over our desolate situations today and breathe them back to life!

We have to look within during the dark times. Greater is He who is in you! The same power that conquered the grave lives inside of us! Look for the well of water that is never empty inside of Jesus. He will sustain you until God speaks light over your circumstances.

I didn't realize that the process of building solid faith is done in a very dark, depressing, discouraging, and despairing place. But then again, I don't know anyone who gained their faith basking in Glory on the mountain top. It's in the dark valley where we are called to step out on faith and believe God's promises and believe He is good despite how bad our situation might be. That is a place where faith is built! Surely, no one gets there without a struggle and a fight! In fact, some of you may be in the battle for your life right now. Times like that require great faith to pray, "Thy Will be done." It's easy to pray, "Lord, have Your way!" when everything in your life is going good. But when everything you touch crumbles to pieces, when everything is falling apart and nothing comes together, when all hell has broken loose around you, it's a different story-- a faith story to pray, "Thy Will be done!"

Out of the darkest times of my life, I look back and see how God built a solid foundation of faith in me. I may have been backed up into a corner and surrounded by chaos in a pit that kept getting deeper, but God was using it all to make a prayer warrior out of me. He will equip you for your calling in a tough place. Know that you cannot do what God has called you to do, no matter what it is, without great faith. But once we go through what we have to go through to build our faith, God will show us how He has been there all along anxiously waiting to turn our mourning into dancing. God won't bless us with our calling or next stage in life until we are ready for it. We'll stay in the valley as long as it takes to build up the necessary faith. But once we are ready, God will swiftly bring us out of the dark as He speaks light over our lives. Glory be to God!

No comments:

Post a Comment