READ: The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. Psalm 18:28
REFLECT: My junior-high science teacher took the class outside one sunny day and held a magnifying glass over a pile of dry leaves until they suddenly burst into flame.
“This happened,” explained my teacher, “because the lens concentrated the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat. Of course, the leaves had to be thoroughly dry in order to ignite.”
Sometimes I bask in the light of God’s presence, feel His love and know His nearness. But then I go into a kind of desert. My prayers seem dull and lifeless and I can’t seem to recapture that inspiring sense of God’s closeness.
Yet it comforts me to realize that there’s a purpose to the desert. God is drying the leaves of my soul, making me ready to receive, anew, the flaming grace of His Holy Spirit, through the lens of Christ’s love. Knowing that, I can stand the drying time, can’t you?
PRAY: I praise You, Father, for the spiritual dark times as well as the light. However long it takes, make my soul ready to receive a new flame of Your Holy Spirit.
DO: Keep praying and praising God simply because He is worthy of praise. When the Holy Spirit renews the light of His presence, praise some more!
