When the Lights Go Out

“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and

A light unto my path.”

Psalm 119:105

What do you do when the lights go out?  You light a candle or you get a flashlight!

Now apply that to life.  There are moments when life just seems to go dark… moments when we just can’t see the path ahead.  “What do I do next? Which way do I go from here?”  As a pastor I have heard people ask these kinds of questions.  I often hear them from someone whose marriage is falling apart.  Perhaps there has be infidelity.  He or is she is wondering, “What should I do?  Should I get a divorce?  Should I stick with him even if he doesn’t want to stick with me?  Should I fight for my marriage or should I flee?  What do I do?”  Sometimes it’s a person who’s lost a job or a college student trying to choose a path through life.  “What should I do?  Which way should I go?”  I could go on, there are just many moments in life when the path ahead… even the next step seems shrouded in darkness.

So what do you do when the lights go out in life… when the path ahead is hard to see?  You take hold of the candle and the flashlight that God has provided you.  That candle… that flashlight is God’s Word.  “Thy Word,” the Scriptures tell us, “is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path.”  The Word of God is both lamp and light.  Think about those two images.  A lamp in the ancient world illuminated your feet – it showed you the best place to take your next step.  The law of God is like that.  It may not tell you what career to choose or new job to seek.  But it will guide you morally down that path.  It will tell you that truthfulness and integrity are keys in taking that next step.  It will tell you that “storing up treasures on earth” are not the best foundation on which to build your life – since “moth and rust” can destroy them and “thieves” can break in and steal them.  The Word of God won’t tell you if your marriage can be saved but it will tell you that if at all possible a marriage is worth fighting for… The Word really is a lamp unto our feet.

The Word is also a “Light to our path.”  That’s what a flashlight does.  It shines out ahead and shows us the right way to go.  God’s Word does that. God’s Word of Gospel holds out ahead of us the promise of where God is taking us, of the future He has in store for us, of what He desires for us.  God’s Word tells us that He wants us to have life and have it abundantly.  God’s word promises “treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal.”  God’s word says He has prepared a place for us in His Father’s house.  God’s word promises that His chief desire when we take the wrong path is to forgive us and set us on the right path.  He so desires to work all things together for good in our lives that He gave his one and only Son.  His Son died and rose again to open the pathway to life for us.

What do you do when everything seems dark in your life?  Take hold of God’s word.  Pick it up and read it, study it, take it to heart.  It’s a lamp that will help you with next steps and when you take wrong steps.  It’s a light to your path… a light that gives you hope… a light you can trust will lead you to the future God has promised.  If you ever needed good reason to go to Bible study or daily read His word – I just gave you two good ones.