Let Darkness be Light

I was contemplating my life and even my death. These verses apply to it all. They are my favorite verses in all of Isaiah ranking up next to the ones about Christ's death. I've been on a spiritual/personal growth rollercoaster recently. I know these verses to apply and are true. I can say amen to them.

“16 I will lead the blind by a way they do not know,
In paths they do not know I will guide them.
I will make darkness into light before them
And rugged places into plains.
These are the things I will do,
And I will not leave them undone.”
Isaiah 42:16 NASB

"2 I will go before you and make the rough places smooth;
I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars.
3 “I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden wealth of secret places,
So that you may know that it is I,
The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
Isaiah 45:2-3 NASB

This is the life we live. So that all our good works are seen as wrought in God. I was deciding if I would much rather be blind and walk a straight road. Or could see and walk a crooked one. We do both at the same time in some sense. I would much rather be blind and walk by faith. It is far easier but far more trusting.

I also thought about the end of that road in my life. I was thinking of my own mortality. I was thinking about death; it appeared to be some hideous monster ready to devour any in its path. Oh, but how Death to the blind was merely an angel shepherding souls and blocking the view of the splendors of what lie beyond.

Second, there is a plundering of the wealth of the secret places. These verses, and ones like them, usually discuss idols in the immediate context. It seems that the very idols, which we break, contain the very things we offer to God in worship. The very desirable things through which we come out of this life with more than we came in. Things by which God is magnified and glorified. This brings us to how Peter looks at trials and this life.

"In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. "
1 Peter 1:6-9 NASB

How there is such a link to God's providence in our trials, not just ones of adversity but ones of prosperity. The world is never as dangerous as when it has put on a silk glove and sweetly beacons. How our faith aught to carry over into how we live our lives as a result of all things. How our faith should continue to rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, regardless and all the more for what we go through in this life.