Being Comfortable In The Dark - 2026
Good morning, Mt. Calvary – I am blessed to be here with you today. Will you please bow for a word of prayer? The title of my message this morning is “Being Comfortable in the Dark.”
The writer of the book of Hebrews wrote, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) I will come back to this later, but for right now I want you to know that if we are to walk in faith, we must become comfortable being in the dark – walking without having all the directions beforehand. This message is one that I have preached to and reminded myself of several times, so it is very personal. There have been things that have happened around me that for a moment I felt my focus and assurance wavering – a very scary feeling. During those times I felt darkness engulfing me because I did not have the answers.
However, within that darkness, those times of feeling confused or uncertain, God spoke to me about faith. When we are walking in faith, sometimes walking alone on that path, we will experience times when we are in the dark and relying totally on God, which should be our way of life. But sometimes we need the darkness to remind us of our reliance on God. As Isaiah wrote, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2) This morning I want to talk to you about faith, but from the viewpoint of not knowing – the very definition of being in the dark.
Darkness is something we all understand. There is the darkness of grief; the darkness of sickness; the darkness of unanswered prayers and the darkness of uncertainty about the future. But please understand, darkness is not just the absence of light, it is the presence of fear. For us to walk in faith, we must become comfortable with being in the dark – without fear. For this message I am talking about the mental darkness we experience when we do not understand nor have the answers to what is happening and yet we are to continue taking steps and moving forward. Walking in faith means that we believe and hope for something that we cannot presently see. This belief is grounded in our understanding of God and Who He is in our life. Because we have that trusting relationship, we are willing to follow Him blindly. Our faith does not deny the mental darkness but declares that God is greater than it. To understand how this works, I want to spend a few minutes talking about the natural darkness.
When I was a small boy there were times when I was afraid of the dark. There was just something scary about not being able to see what was out there when everything was dark. In total darkness, it is impossible for you to know everything that is going on around you because you cannot see it. When I was a child there were times when my parents would ask me to go into another part of the house to get something and immediately, I began to turn on lights as I went to make sure there was nothing going to jump out at me. Even though I knew there was no one else present in our house, my imagination still conjured up ideas of someone hiding in the darkness just waiting to get me as I walked down the darkened hallways.
Likewise, even though we were allowed to play outside after dark, we had to stay in our or our neighbor’s yards because we understood that bad things happened in the dark. How many times have we heard about places that we should not go to after dark? The reason is that bad things happen in the dark. When Jesus talked about our always being ready and on guard as we watch for His return, He used the analogy of a thief coming in the dark. He said, “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.” (Matthew 24:43) We know that “in general,” thieves break in during the darkness because it decreases their chance of getting caught.
Physical darkness complicates our lives. We are limited as to what we can do and where we can go after it becomes dark. The darkness can limit us, and, for some people, it terrifies them. I have been traveling on roads in western Kansas in the daytime that I would not want to travel at night. These roads had no lights, and it would be pitch black with many miles between two cities. I always imagine what it would be like to have car trouble on one of those roads late at night with no cell phone service. I imagined having to sit there in the darkness alone not being able to see anything. The physical darkness is scary and so is the mental darkness. I am using the term “mental darkness” to represent us not knowing everything and yet needing to continue forward until the light breaks through. This, Mt Calvary, is called walking by faith.
If you contrast the darkness with the daylight, there is only one difference between the two; in the daylight you can see what is around you. You can be in the exact same spot at two separate times of the day and have complete confidence at one time and be utterly scared the next. Why does this happen? It happens because in the daylight you can see for great distances what is around you, and you know that no one can sneak up and attack you without you seeing them coming. This is not the case when we are in total darkness. During those times we cannot see what is around us and it would be easy to be attacked from behind.
One more point I want to make about the darkness. When there is a bad thunderstorm at night, the storms seem worse because at night you cannot see how dark the clouds are. You cannot see a tornado in the distance. Also, when lightning flashes, it is magnified by the darkness. Darkness magnifies storms because we cannot “see” how bad they really are so our imagination kicks in. We can imagine worse storms in the darkness than we can in daylight because our minds can be extremely active at night. What I want you to see from this analogy of the physical darkness is this: when we are walking by faith, we are holding on to what the old folks used to call, “God’s unchanging hand” through the darkness. Now let’s go back to what the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 11:1.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance (substance) of things hoped for, the conviction (evidence) of things not seen.” Now focus on the last statement “of things not seen.” Remember, the only difference between being in a location in the daylight and being in the same location when there is total darkness is the ability to see what is around you. In total darkness we cannot see things. So, to put it plainly, to walk by faith means that we must get extremely comfortable being in the dark knowing that, while we do not know what is happening around us, God does and He is working. Now the problem that exist for some is that although we know that God is working, we sometimes find ourselves being uncomfortable not knowing what He is doing. We must remember that faith does not require visibility, it requires trust. So, when we can’t see the way forward or understand what God is doing faith says: “God is still working.” “God is still faithful.” Anyone can praise God in the daylight, but it takes faith to praise Him in the darkness.
Remember earlier when I talked about some people being terrified of the dark? There is a physical response within our bodies when we are scared. We breathe quicker; our pulse rate increases and we become agitated. All these symptoms prepare us for what is known as the fight/flight response. Our body prepares us to get ready to fight or to run like crazy. When our bodies begin to go down the road towards a fight/flight response, we have two choices: we can lose control or we can calm ourselves and remain in control. If we lose control, we stop thinking clearly and we begin to operate on impulse. However, if we calm ourselves, we retain control and can make sound decisions because we are thinking clearly. The same principle applies to our faith walk.
When we are walking by faith and are comfortable being in the dark, as it relates to what God is doing and how He is doing it, our responses are calm and focused. But when we are uncomfortable in that time of mental darkness, not knowing what God is doing and even wondering if He is doing something, then we lose our peace and start seeking our own answers. This is when we get into trouble. When we are standing in faith, we are standing for an outcome that has not happened, so the outcome is still dark to us and, for some, it can be nerve racking. It can be so nerve racking that they stop walking in faith and attempt to create their own answers. This is where our faith breaks down and many blame God for the outcome that they themselves created. But when we stand firm, comfortable in the darkness, we will come to the point where we see the fulfillment of what we were standing for and then understand clearly how God worked it out. Mt Calvary, when we stop walking by faith, we are letting go of God’s hand and are no longer following Him to receive the “answer” to our faith.
Let me share with you how our times of mental darkness fight against our walking by faith. And again, I am not talking about mental darkness as a mental illness, but the state of not knowing while we are waiting for God to move. Mental darkness is okay when we are walking by faith, but sometimes it can become crippling as it wars against our faith. In those situations, our mind tells us that what we are believing God for is impossible and therefore it does not make sense. Remember, the mind processes things in a way for them to make sense in the natural. Paul wrote, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (First Corinthians 2:14)
When we were saved our minds remained the same. It is after we are saved that we begin to do what Paul wrote to the Church in Rome when he said, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2) Until our minds are renewed and we are proving to ourselves and others the will of God we will continue to struggle mentally with walking by faith – walking in complete and total darkness as we trust in Him. During a state of crippling mental darkness, we can only believe and accept what our mind sees and accepts. If the mind sees the evidence, sees the proof, then we will accept it. Remember the story of Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples? Remember how he refused to accept that Jesus was alive because he himself had not seen Him personally? John 20:24-25 records the following, “(24) Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. (25) The other disciples therefore said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ So, he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’” (John 20:24-25)
I want you to consider something with this story. I know we know this story well, but I want you to think about the reason it unfolded the way that it did. Jesus knew all His disciples, their strengths, weaknesses, etc. He “knew” how Thomas thought – how he reasoned. Have you ever wondered why Jesus came to the disciples when He “knew” Thomas would not be there? Think about it – Jesus knew that Thomas was not with the disciples at the time that He chose to visit them. Could this have been on purpose? Thomas needed to make a change in how he thought for him to fully accomplish what Jesus was going to require of him and the other disciples. So, Jesus came and visited with His disciples. When Thomas returned, they began to share with him that they had seen Jesus. Thomas told them that unless he could see for himself the imprint of the nails in His hands as well as place his finger into the place, he would not believe. He did not say that he would not consider it; he flat out said he would not believe.
Thomas was experiencing crippling mental darkness, and he needed to see the proof before he could believe. Thomas’ crippling mental darkness led him to a place of misbelief and not just any unbelief, that type of unbelief that draws a line in the sand stating it will not believe until something specific happens that gives him no choice but to believe. This type of unbelief removes all faith from operating. Thomas had walked with Jesus and his brethren disciples for three years. During this time, he witnessed miracles, deliverance, healings and participated in a lot of these. But when his mind witnessed Christ crucifixion, his mind refused to accept anything other than what it had witnessed – Christ death and burial. This was a very crippling mental darkness he experienced. And because of this decision, Thomas forgot what Christ had taught them; he forgot what he had experienced with his fellow disciples: and he forgot how he had been walking for the last three years. It was not that he turned away from believing in Christ, he just needed real proof that Jesus was alive. He never said it could not happen; he demanded proof that it did happen.
But notice what Jesus told him when He returned. When Jesus came back to the disciples and Thomas was there, He addressed Thomas openly. He exposed Thomas’ weakness to help him and the others become stronger. Again, Thomas could not fulfill what Christ had called him to do if he had to always see something before he could believe it. He could not continue to walk in the type of mental darkness that crippled him and accomplish the mission that Christ had for Him. When Jesus came back, He already knew what Thomas had said so He provided Thomas with the proof that he needed to believe. Jesus told Thomas “…. Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29) Jesus told Thomas that he believed because he saw Him, but there is a blessing for those of us who believe who have not seen Him - who are comfortable in the dark.
For us to walk by faith we must become extremely comfortable with the darkness – not the darkness representing evil, but the darkness of not knowing something, but knowing that God never fails us. To walk in this darkness requires a belief and trust in God that many struggle with. This darkness does not have to scare us as it is part of our faith walk. When we are walking by faith, we believe God for something and although we do not presently have what we are believing Him for, we know it is on its way. So, we begin to give thanks and praise to God because spiritually we know we have what we have been seeking. When you are experiencing a time when your mind attempts to take you to that place of crippling mental darkness, that darkness comes about because your mind is fighting against your spirit and winning – it is trying to rationalize what your spirit believes. It is trying to gain the same assurance that your spirit has about a situation, but it is struggling doing so. If during these times we are not careful, our minds can override the calmness that is in our spirits. This is why we must commit to memory beforehand the promises or God and what He has already fulfilled in our lives, and He encourages us to do this in Isaiah 43:26 – “Put Me in remembrance; let us contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted.”
Before I close, I want to share one story about crippling mental darkness and how it can lead us to seek answers in the wrong places. Years ago, I turned on the TV early one morning and was flipping through the channels. I came across an infomercial for a man known as “The Prophet.” During the infomercial there were many people including two well know ministers, a motivational speaker, a very well-known author, and judge all giving praises to this man who had changed their lives through his prophecies. As I watched this, I thought about how all these people were being deceived following this man – they were experiencing a mental darkness that crippled them and they did not even realize it because their minds liked what it had heard and experienced. Do I believe that there are true prophets of God in the world today? Absolutely! Do I believe that this man was one of them? I have serious doubts and here’s why. All the testimonies were about how the prophet was able to help them financially. On the infomercial you could call in and request your first “free prophecy” and once you were hooked, you could purchase others. What I found interesting was that all these people said that every prophecy that had been given to them happened – yet they had to purchase them. I cannot find any reference in the Bible where a prophet charged for the prophecy that was supposedly from God and gave you one for free just to get you started.
My point is this. We do not like walking in the dark when we are walking in faith. We’re like Thomas. We want the sure thing. We do not want to be patient and allow God to move, we want to know how He will move and when. Because of this need, we will seek out anyone who will tell us what we want to hear and ignore where God is trying to lead us. I am asking you this morning if you are standing in faith for something and you have not received your answer, although darkness may surround you, your answer is coming. Just hold on – don’t give up. If everything seems to be crashing around you, stand on your faith. Don’t tell God that you will believe when He has answered your prayer, tell Him that you know He will answer, and you are going to wait and be led by His Spirit.
Satan doesn’t want us to be comfortable in the dark. He doesn’t want us peaceful as we wait. But we have a promise from our Father. As we become increasingly comfortable in the dark, Isaiah 26:3 says this about Him: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Mt Calvary, faith gives us courage to keep walking; peace when answers don’t come; and hope when circumstances don’t change. Faith in the darkness does not mean we feel brave, it means we choose to trust. And when we trust God in the dark, we discover something powerful: the same God who holds the sun is holding us.
There is something unsettling about darkness. When the lights go out, our instincts immediately tell us something is wrong. We want clarity. We want to see where we are going. We want to know what is ahead of us. But the truth is - faith rarely walks in full daylight. The Bible says in Second Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” If we could see everything God was doing, it wouldn’t require faith. Faith is trusting God when the road ahead is dim and the answers are hidden. Think about Abraham. God told him to leave his homeland and go to a place God would show him - but God didn’t give him a map. Think about Moses standing at the Red Sea with the Egyptian army behind him—God didn’t reveal the plan until Moses stepped forward. Think about the disciples on the stormy sea in the middle of the night. They couldn’t see the shore - but Jesus came walking to them on the water. Over and over again, God leads His people through moments where they cannot see what He is doing. Because faith grows best in the dark.
When everything is clear, we trust our sight. When everything makes sense, we trust our understanding. But when the path disappears and the night falls - that’s when we learn to trust God. Some of you may be in that kind of darkness right now. You don’t understand what God is doing in your family. You don’t understand the struggle you’re facing. You don’t understand why the door closed, why the prayer hasn’t been answered, or why the path ahead feels so uncertain. But me on this: just because you cannot see God working does not mean God has stopped working. The God who led Israel by a pillar of fire in the night is the same God who is leading you now. The Shepherd who leads His sheep through the valley of the shadow of death never abandons them in the dark.
Faith does not require us to see the whole path. Faith only requires us to take the next step.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
