Steve McVey

When God was ready to interact with Moses on Mount Sinai, Moses had to walk directly into the darkness – “thick darkness” the Bible calls it. The amazing thing about it was that it was in that thick darkness that he would meet God and hear Him speak directly. Sometimes it is in the darkness where we are most likely to see and hear God.

A big misconception that many people have is that if we can just find the right biblical formula and follow it, things will turn out the way we want. Modern Christianity often suggests that to follow Christ means that, as long as we’re doing the things we’ve been told that we are supposed to do, we can expect sunshine in the circumstances of our lives. Then life’s situations step into plain view and we realize it’s not working the way we’ve believed it would. We were sure that things would turn out a certain way, but they didn’t.

The fallacy in the viewpoint that we can ensure a particular result from God by what we do for Him is that it turns our relationship with God into a divine vending machine. If we put the right things in, the things we want will come out in life. Experience soon shows that neither God nor life is a vending machine in which a certain payment automatically produces a certain product.

Have you felt like the things you’ve learned about how a certain kind of behavior will always produce a particular outcome just isn’t true? Have you been disappointed because you’ve felt like you did all the right things and the result isn’t what you thought it would be? It can be very unsettling to a person’s faith if she has been convinced that by putting a particular thing into life, what comes out in his circumstance should be a sure thing.
The reality is that neither biblical faith nor our God works that way. Our Father is good but we can’t manipulate Him or situations in life by doing this and expecting that. Sometimes there’s a fine line between honoring God though our actions and subtly trying to get what we want from Him by turning our actions into a formula that we expect to yield a certain result. The grace walk isn’t built around formulas but is grounded in faith in the loving kindness of the One whose we are.

What are we to do when our situations don’t unfold in the way we were sure they would, after having done all the right things? What do we do when we see nothing but a thick, dark cloud where we had anticipated a bright day? When we can’t make sense of how things have turned out, what is the answer? It’s this: Walk in the darkness and cling to Jesus.

When you have made a serious decision in faith and things still went sour, cling to Jesus. When you read your Bible, but don’t seem to get anything out of it at all, cling to Jesus. When your bills are coming in faster than your paychecks do, cling to Jesus. When your children make decisions that contradict everything you’ve taught them their whole lives, cling to Jesus. When the doctor gives the diagnosis you most feared to hear, cling to Jesus. When you aren’t sure which minister is teaching truth and which is teaching error, cling to Jesus. When grace is a subject you believe, but wonder how to move it from your head to your experience, cling to Jesus. When your heart has grown cold and you haven’t felt God’s presence in a very long time, cling to Jesus. When a friend betrays you in a way you never would have expected, cling to Jesus.

Cling to Jesus. He will guide you through His Spirit. He will nurture you by His love. He will provide for you through His generosity. He will comfort you through His tender compassion. He will heal you by His stripes. He will reveal truth to you through the Scriptures. He will transform you by His power. He will touch you by His presence. He will sustain you by His faithfulness.

Cling to Jesus. He holds you in His arms at this very moment and will never let you go. You have been bought with a price and will display the glory of His grace throughout eternity. Cling to Jesus and know this for sure – He will eternally cling to you. You may be in the dark but He will never let go.

Love to you,

Steve McVey