Faith in the Dark

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” Psalm 27:1 (ESV)

Moses was born beneath the shadow of a death sentence. Pharaoh had commanded that every Hebrew son be thrown into the Nile. For Israelite parents, the birth of a boy brought both joy and immediate danger.

The writer of Hebrews looks back on the actions of Moses’ parents and describes them this way: “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.” (Hebrews 11:23)

They weren’t afraid.

That doesn’t mean they never felt fear. Surely, they understood what Pharaoh’s soldiers could do. They knew the risks of defying the most powerful ruler in their world. But they refused letting fear make decisions for them.

Moses’ parents understood something Pharaoh couldn’t. Pharaoh may have occupied the throne of Egypt, but he didn’t occupy the throne of heaven. His authority was real but limited.

God’s authority was greater.

The Battle is Spiritual

Scripture reminds us that the conflicts we see around us are often part of a deeper struggle. 

Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Knowing the spiritual nature of the battle should never cause us to live in panic. 

It should strengthen our faith. The darkness may be real, but it’s not greater than God. The enemy may be active, but he is not sovereign.

Moses’ parents acted on that truth. They hid their son. When they couldn’t hide him any longer, his mother placed him in a basket among the reeds of the Nile.

What looked like an act of desperation became part of God’s deliverance. The river Pharaoh intended to use as an instrument of death carried Moses into the household of Pharaoh himself.

Only God could write a story like that.

Faith in Our Lives

We may look at our own lives and wonder what kind of world our children and grandchildren are inheriting. We see confusion about truth, growing hatred toward Christian faith, increasing anxiety, fractured families, and cultural pressures that seem to reach into every part of life.

It takes faith to raise children in days like these.

It takes faith to teach them that truth doesn’t change simply because culture does.

It takes faith to pray over them when we can’t control every influence around them.

It takes faith to prepare them for a world that may not celebrate or share their convictions.

But difficult times aren’t unfamiliar territory for the people of God.

• Daniel learned to remain faithful in Babylon.
• Esther was placed inside a pagan empire and called to courageously use her position.
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood before a furnace rather than bow before an idol.
• Timothy received a deep faith that had first lived in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.

None of them waited for the culture to become comfortable before serving God.

Our Responsibility Today

Our responsibility today is not to give the next generation a life without difficulty. We can’t promise them that. Our responsibility is to give them a faith strong enough to endure hard times.

That requires more than words. Children notice how we make decisions. They see whether we pray before we panic. They hear when our conversations are filled with hope or despair.

They learn from us whether faith is merely something we profess on Sunday or something that shapes how we live on Monday.

As Paul told Timothy: “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

Fear makes us withdraw. Faith moves us forward.

This isn’t a time for spiritual laziness, selfishness, or surrender. It’s a time to pray more faithfully, live more courageously, love more generously, and speak the truth more clearly. We can’t allow the enemy to intimidate us into silence or convince us that the darkness has already won.

Moses’ parents could not see the whole story when they hid their infant son. They didn’t know he would confront Pharaoh, lead Israel out of Egypt, and stand at the edge of the Red Sea. They simply trusted God with the next faithful step.

That’s what God asks of us.

We may not know what the next generation will face. But we know the God who will go before them. Let’s give them more than our fears about the future. 

Let’s give them a living example of courageous, enduring faith.

The world may feel dark, but God is still on His throne. And faith still refuses to be afraid.

May God continuously lead your path