In the Darkness of Night: by T. Atkins

In the Darkness of Night: by T. Atkins

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Pastor Len and Friends

In the Darkness of Night

As most children do, I grew up with a healthy fear of the dark. It was typical for me, especially as a very young child, to request my father to stay with me at bedtime until I fell asleep. His presence was comforting and it would be a short while before I would give in to my exhaustion. But there were times when I would wake up in the middle of the night to an empty room and it would take all I had to muster up the courage to venture out into that hallway to seek the bedroom of my parents.

Although it doesn’t terrify me as it used to, the dark can still cause me to walk a little faster towards a car or a house. And I still scramble just as fast as my kids for a flashlight when there is a blackout. But I don’t do these things necessarily out of fear. I walk to a car or a house a little faster because there are times when we should be cautious and careful. I scramble to find the flashlight in a shadowy house because I don’t care to stub a toe or bruise a shin.

But… there are times in the darkness of night when I do tremble. These are the times when the enemy of my soul attacks. Have you ever noticed that? Have you woken up to Satan’s attack on your mind? Maybe for years or months you’ve not desired alcohol, but he wakes you up desperate for a drink. Maybe you’re struggling to keep your faith in Christ for deliverance from addiction to pornography but are awoken to images you cannot erase from your mind. Maybe you don’t know how you’re going to feed your family, and although you’ve put your trust in the Lord for provision and have gone to bed with the Lord’s peace in your heart – Satan wakes you up with feelings of hopelessness. Or maybe you wake up feeling so alone and unloved that you cannot see any Light at all.

Satan makes it his business to know your weaknesses. He sure knows mine. He knows that for most of my life he held me in bondage with doubts and fears that would haunt my nights and wake me up almost paralyzed in terror. He knows that one of the hardest things for me to accept was that God the Father loved me, that He knew my name, that I was actually included in the “whosoever will” that Christ died for.

When I finally came to accept that Christ died for me, too… He set me free from the bondage of hopelessness, terror and depression. I found peace. I found joy. I found that I could trust in Him no matter what the situation looked like. So now when I am drifting off to sleep and suddenly feel a very real presence that brings those old feelings of terror that make me tremble, I cling to the Promises of God. I remind myself and the enemy who I am in Christ – a child of The Most High God. I call out to the One who saved me and set me free.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7

Peace I leave with you, My Peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27

I hope and pray that if you are enduring attacks from the enemy that this has ministered to your heart and that you will be encouraged to know those midnight battles have already been won for you at the Cross of Calvary.