The sunrise is my favorite part of the day.
A sunrise
- Celebrates a new day of life
- Revels in the gifts of color, symmetry, and design at its best
- Brags on the creative ability of a Divine Hand
- Washes the night of its darkness.
Why do I like sunrises better than sunsets?
A sunrise is a lavish reminder in vivid moving color of the consistency of God’s faithfulness. No matter how dark the night, the sunrise will always come.
Night time can be tough.
Things always seem worse at night. The shadows are darker and longer. Problems loom as large as the proverbial monster under the bed.
- My husband rivals Oscar the Grouch
- My mother is more fragile than a broom straw
- My children are destined to go off the deep end
- Church problems seem insurmountable
- Relationships are fractured beyond repair
- My sensitivities become more sensitive
- The what ifs of life always take a negative bent
- The motivations of others become malicious
- Irrationality replaces sound reasoning
- Hope morphs into hopelessness
And I brood. Because I have nothing else to do. I can’t get up and keep busy because everyone else is sleeping. So I lay there, rehashing arguments, reliving sad moments, getting more depressed, angry, and desperate with every tick of the clock.
I know I’m not alone.
David, the introspective poet of the Old Testament, shared my struggle of the night when he wrote Psalm 143:
“O Lord, hear my prayer; listen to my cry for mercy. In your faithfulness and righteousness, come to my relief.” (v.1)
In the dark of the night, even God seemed more bent to pick on David, for David wrote:
“Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you (v. 2).”
Hey God, why do I get to occupy the seat of suffering? Am I the only one worthy of Your judgement? Why are You picking on me?
Where do I get the idea of darkness? Verses 3 and 4 talk of how David’s enemy makes him dwell in darkness like those long dead, so crushing that David’s spirit grows faint and his heart is filled with dismay.
David does the right thing in the middle of the night. In verses 5 and 6, he tells how he consciously turns his mind toward a more positive perspective: “I consider what your hands have done.”
And then, David prays for what I long for – the morning light.
“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love for I have put my trust in you (v. 8).”
When I wake with the morning light, all those things I feared in the night are gone.
The sunrise reminds me that God’s love is unfailing. Just as the sun will always rise, so God’s faithfulness to me remains constant. Satan might try to cover the radiance of the sun with dark storm clouds, but the light is still there. The sunrise is not gone; it is merely hidden from my sight. The trials of my life no longer look so bad. My husband is a nice guy after all, my children are wonderful, and I blush to think of how many black crayons I used to color my world on the dark side.
Where are you in the spectrum between darkness and light of day?
Have you exchanged your songs in the nights for anguished cries? Does the dark threaten to squelch your joy and hope?
If you ever find yourself singing the blues in the middle of the night, David has some prayer points for you in Psalm 143:8-10:
- Give me reminders of Your love.
- Show me the way I should go.
- Rescue me from my enemies.
- Teach me to do your will.
For each of these prayer points, David made a commitment to God. You can make these commitments too.
- I have put my trust in you.
- I lift up my soul to you.
- I hide myself in You.
- You are my God.
My husband and I have long followed a simple piece of advice given to us early in our marriage. It’s this: “Don’t make any rash decisions when you’re sick or tired.”
I think we could expand the tired part to include the night. Don’t make any rash decisions in the middle of the night, for it is at night when everything seems darker and more foreboding. Wait till the sunrise, reflect on God’s promises, seek His will, and with His guidance, make your choices.
God loves you. With every ray of sunlight streaming from rose tinted clouds, His love for you is constant and consistent. His good Spirit will lead you.
