Have you ever had to walk into a room filled with total darkness, fumbling around furniture while looking for the closest light switch? Even when it is a room you are familiar with, having to move around in that oppressive darkness can be a little nerve wracking, and for some it may even be terrifying. The imagination starts spinning, and suddenly you find yourself contemplating every possible thing that could be waiting to pounce on you from a hundred different directions. Fear of the dark is one of the most basic human instincts, and it is not without merit.

Our Heavenly Father operates in the light…all things good and beautiful are bathed in light. We’ve all known people who seem to burst with an inner light, and those people can always fill the space around them with that light. That light is the spirit of God. It is inside every one of us, just waiting to be reached and switched on.

Satan does his best work in the darkness of our minds. He cannot operate in the light. Worry, anxiety, fear, and every other negative emotion we experience are the shadows the enemy uses to cloud our hearts and skew our judgment. He wants us to believe we cannot be at peace without the person we’ve lost. He wants us to believe we weren’t good enough to get that job we applied for or the part we wanted at our last audition. He wants us to believe we are too weak to walk through another day. He wants us to believe the light of God has left us stranded in the dark. He is the father of lies!

The light of God can never leave us stranded because it lives inside of us. The adversary wants us stumbling around in the dark, unable to find the light switch, our panic and fear increasing with every passing moment. What he DOESN’T want is for us to realize we don’t need to search for the switch. We just need to stop and calm down, reach our hearts out to the Lord and ask Him to help us. He is inside of us, just waiting for us to turn away from the lies and into His light. Our Heavenly Father needs us to believe the truth, which is that we can be at peace no matter how painful our loss. He needs us to believe there is a reason we didn’t get the job or the part we wanted so desperately. He needs us to trust that He is working every single thing out for our benefit.

Last night I allowed myself to get swallowed up by the lies and the darkness. I allowed Satan to convince me that the pain of loss was more than I could endure. I allowed myself to be convinced I was worthless. How blessed I am that I have a Godly man at my side who was able to help me turn my face back to the light. He surrounded me with love and spoke the truth to my heart. Things will always happen in our lives that cause us pain and grief. However, those things are not bigger or more powerful than God.

I had an epiphany a long time ago that has never left me. I often hear people talk about their struggles, myself included, and it is so easy to feel like we are carrying more than we can manage. It is also easy to judge someone else’s load as lighter or heavier than our own. To a certain extent, all of this is true. Imagine, if you will, two men. One is big and bursting with muscles and strength. The other is small and quite frail. The men are tasked with moving a pile of rocks up to the top of a hill. As you would imagine, the big man instinctively began moving the larger, heavier rocks, while the frail man started working on the smaller, lighter rocks. Now, to watch the two of them at work, you might think that the big man was working harder than the frail man, but what you aren’t considering is that each man is literally carrying as much weight as he has the strength to carry. They are working equally hard, and their loads feel equally heavy…to THEM. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Now, in reality, we all have a load to carry through life, and no matter what it looks like from the outside, we are each working just as hard as our brothers and sisters at carrying our respective loads. You can be sure that we are all laden with far more than we can manage on our own. But, all we are required to do is carry as much of the load as we can manage, and then allow God to carry the rest. So, no matter how much is laid on our shoulders, it is never more than we can carry, and it can always be managed because we have the strength of the Lord to make up the strength we lack as human beings.

One of the best things God has given us to help carry our loads in life is one another. Why else do you think we have been commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves? Satan does not love. He does not empathize. He does not care for our well-being. We are told in the Bible that God IS love, and when we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, “casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. (1 Peter 5:7 AMP)

As you go about your day today, take note of any negative thoughts that come into your heart and mind, and recognize that they are but shadows being cast upon you by the enemy of all that is good and pure in this world. Choose to turn your faces back to the light of God, and do what you can to shine that light on those around you.

“But I say to you who hear [Me and pay attention to My words]: Love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, [make it a practice to] do good to those who hate you, bless and show kindness to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28 AMP)