The night is nearly over...

"The night is nearly over, the day is almost here ..." (Rom 13:12). Paul said these words to Roman’s believers, in the prime days of the church. When he said that he had in mind the second coming of Jesus Christ and he urged to alert the church to have an attitude changing. This week, while I was looking for my notes to prepare the message to minister in the church, I came across a sermon that I had prepared over 20 years ago; I used it just few times. When I read it, despite the sermon is over 20 years old, the message was more suitable for our reality then I could imagine. When Paul made the statement “The night is nearly over” it was because those nebulous time had come to an end. It makes sense when we look into our spiritual life and we realize that we are facing difficult situations. Paul went from one extreme to another when he said: "The night is nearly over and the day is almost here ...” Facing the night is not easy especially when it seems longer than we can endure. The night can be considered hard enough to anyone to resist, but before the day reach us, we still have to resist to the dawn. That is a hard transition period, a period of expectations. The night is coming to an end but still not a day. This transition period can be hard on us if we are not sure about how God works in our lives. Although during this period we can see the first rays of the sun, some people just give in and instead of moving on they just settle with some rays, they keep waiting until they can reach the “perfect day”. 

There are many people who give up of their dreams, they give up of happiness, give up on achieve their full potential, they don’t move on until they find the perfect situation. Are you are experiencing the night in your life right now? Has the brightness of the day completely gone away? Or are you dealing with the frightening dawn? 

If you are dealing with the night or early morning, I encourage you to go ahead and do not give up of your dreams, don’t give in! Don’t settle just with little bit of sunshine, move on towards the day. God wants you to experience His blessing completely. The night can be long but it will pass. The psalmist has already told us: "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning" (Ps 30.5). God has promised us a life that we can enjoy his blessing to the fullness, so do not settle only with the first rays of the sun, march and advance spiritually in the direction of your perfect day. 

God bless you.

English version by Clarice Moraes Harding
Original by Pr Helio Morais 

 See Portuguese version:

 A noite já passou...