Learning things in the dark you never learn in the day is a famous saying of Vance Havner.

1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

Learning things in the dark you never learn in the day is a famous saying of Vance Havner.  As Christians, we often do not learn lessons from the sunny days but rather by the dark nights that God brings in our lives.  Fiery trials do not always make a lot of sense.  We often think it strange some of the things that God bring in our lives to try us.  He knows what it takes to produce fruit in our lives.  We would not likely choose what He would choose to grow us.  Chastening is not a fun thing while it is happening.  But when it is done, it produces peace and fruit in a Christian.

The Day

The day is a time of happiness.  Often the early life of a Christian can be happy and carefree.  The Lord is growing a newborn babe.  In that case food, rest and exercise will grow a young child into a boy and a young boy into a man.  The Lord needs a basis to start from.  You need to teach the basic doctrines in the day.  But you can not learn all of life’s lessons in the light.  The goodness of God does lead us to repentance.  But there is still dross that goodness can never seem to get rid of.  God needs more drastic measures to remove the rough edges.

The Night

The night is where God does his refining process.  You need this advanced school to grow and do the real maturing of a Christian.  It takes trials to produce the fruit of the Spirit in a Christian’s life at times.  This is where you really start to learn the hard things of God.  This is where the Lord may use some “strange thing” that happens in your life to grow you.  However, the growth does not happen from the trial itself.  Many people get bitter and do not change it all.  The trial only produces growth when a Christian goes to the Lord and the Word of God for strength.  Here the Lord reveals your sin and produces the love of God in your heart.  Here He can supernaturally remove that dross and refine a Christian.  This is the true perfecting of a Christian that the day can never produce.  This is when you truly learn in the dark the things you never could learn in the day.

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