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“When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest in His unchanging grace.”
The Christian life: it’s good, but often dark. There’s much to rejoice in, but still, much pain. How are we to endure to the end when there is so much against us, so many demons rooting for our failure? Christians endure by resting in Christ and striving for godliness by God’s grace.
The hymn writer makes a great point, doesn’t he? “When darkness seems to hide His face.” When the day breaks, and the news comes again of death in the world, some massacre of innocent people. When your phone rings, and another brother has fallen prey to deception. When you just can’t come out of depression, and the undefinable anxiety that looms in your mind, the kind you just feel, and know that some darkness is around the corner. All of these things “seem” to be hiding Christ’s face, but it’s not.
The darkness that seems to hide the face of grace is actually a defeated darkness. It is inferior to the power of God’s unchanging light and grace. That’s like saying that clouds can smother the Sun. They only seem to. Clouds can make a glorious day awfully dark, but the truth is, the Sun burns as hot as it ever has. We can rest in that greater truth.
So it is with the face of Jesus. The face of His unchanging grace is superior to the darkest spiritual night. We can rest there. When you are sure that darkness has successfully hidden the face of the very One you need, remember that it only seems that way. For nothing is able to change the immutable, sustaining nature of God’s grace and love for you.
2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Joel Littlefield is the assistant pastor and worship leader at Calvary Chapel in Crossville, Tennessee. He is married to Callie, and they have 3 children: Micah, Nathanael, and Aliyah.
