Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2

Read: Amos 5:6-15, Galatians 6:1-10
Pilgrim’s Progress Stage 4 Part 8

Relate: One of the hardest parts about the “dark nights of the soul” that we all experience is the feeling of solitude. This is true for us, but it was also true for Jesus and Paul. When Jesus was in the garden, the disciples all slept through his troubles. Then, when the guards showed up, they all fled in fear. And when he went through his trial, he had no allies. Similarly, Paul talks about his trial when writing to Timothy in what is probably the last letter he ever wrote. He says, “When I was first brought before the judge, no one came with me. Everyone abandoned me.”

Christian is tired. He has been walking through the night. And he was doing this after a hard fought battle and while going through a dark, scary valley. This valley was so rough, and the enemy’s opposition was so great, that he was even beginning to doubt his own mind. He could no longer discern his own thoughts from the whispered temptations and blasphemies of the enemy.

React: Then Faithful’s voice called out in the dark, “Even though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me.” Faithful was going through that exact same dark night, but just a few steps further down the journey. Christian was not alone. Even though the darkness did not yet end, even though the whispers did not stop, the real struggle was over. The voice of Faithful, declaring hope in the struggle, was the encouragement Christian needed to persevere.

Are you going through a dark night of the soul? You are not alone, no matter how much it seems like you are. Sometimes God will allow you to hear the voice of others who are walking through the same or similar journeys. Or perhaps God will use your voice, crying out hope you might not even fully believe yourself, to encourage others behind you to carry on. In 2 Timothy, just three verses after Paul says, “everyone abandoned me.” Paul mentions nine others by name who are, or were, with him at some point on his journey. This is in addition to “the entire household of Onesiphorous”, “and all the brothers and sisters” who are with him as he writes. Though he felt it in the moment, Paul was not alone. And though you may feel alone in your struggles, neither are you.

Respond:

Dear God,
You are with me. Even as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I am not alone. Nothing, not height or depth, nor angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor anything else, will ever be able to separate me from Your love. And in Your love, You have placed me in a body, in a church, I need and who need me. Help me to be a voice in the dark that will encourage those who feel alone.
Amen