Hold fast

You will notice that during the creation process, God counted days based on the previous nights. The Bible doesn’t say, “The morning and evening were the first day.” No, it says, “God called…the evening and the morning the first day” (Genesis 1:5). That means God specializes in bringing light out of darkness – you just have to get through one to get to the other! God told Moses that the angel of death would come at night: wherever he saw the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, the inhabitants of that house would be saved (see Exodus 12:12-13). Exodus states that God “sent a…wind that blew all night until there was dry land…and the Israelites walked through” (14:21-22 CEV). The psalmist wrote, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5 NKJV). The dawn is all the more brilliant because of the darkness that preceded it, just as your progress is all the more rewarding when set against a backdrop of pain, gain, and breakthrough. Great mornings come by getting through rough nights. When you see somebody who is having a great day, chances are you’re looking at somebody who has been through a long night. When you hear them shouting the victory, it may be because they have spent the night praying and weeping before God. The Bible says, “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise” (Hebrews 10:23 NLT). Trusting God is more than just wishful thinking. It’s knowing that if He said it, He will do it. It’s realizing He doesn’t just control creation, He controls your circumstances. So “hold fast.”