EMBRACE THE DARKNESS (Zig Ziglar Daily Insights Oct 9)Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may bebefore you, so that you may not sin." So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.Times of darkness come to all of us. We may experience tragic, inexplicable loss; confusion; failure; rejection; or for some of us, spiritual emptiness. Our response in these moments often is the product of our previous encounters with God. If we have developed trust in God in the light, we'll embrace Him in the darkness, and in fact, we'll even embrace the darkness as His path for us.Moses had just come down from the mountain and delivered the Ten Commandments to the people. The message didn't come by E-mail. Lightning struck, thunder boomed, trumpets blared, and thick smoke surrounded the mountain and blotted out the sun. The people cowered at the magnificent and terrifying display of the majesty of God! They insisted that Moses talk to them - they didn't want to hear God's voice because they thought they would die! Moses, though, wasn't terrified. His experiences with God at the burning bush, in his confrontations with Pharaoh, at the Red Sea, in providing water from the rock as well as manna and quail from the sky, and on the mountain that everyday all convinced him that God was trustworthy no matter what circumstances he faced.His faith in God was so strong that when the people backed away from the darkness, Moses moved toward it. He was convinced God was there, and he wanted to connect with Him as much as possible.When we experience darkness, we'll back away if our faith is weak, but we'll move into it if our faith has been strengthened by years of experience in seeing God's faithfulness, grace, and power."Anxiety is not only a pain which we must ask God to assuage, but also a weakness we must ask Him to pardon."