A Voice in the Dark

By Andrew McChesney

Grace Babcock woke up suddenly in the middle of the night to the sound of an angry voice. “You don’t know,” the voice said. “You don’t understand.”

Grace wasn’t scared. If anything, she was annoyed about being woken up in her one-bedroom apartment at the Holbrook Indian School, where she worked as a teacher. She listened.

“God is using you like a puppet,” the voice said. “There is stuff that you don’t know. You are following God blindly, and God is tyrannical.”

Grace had been struggling to trust God. The recent death of a Holbrook student in a bus accident had hit her hard. She had many questions for God, but she hadn’t really wanted to talk to Him about them.

Now the voice was accusing God, and she didn’t like that, either.

“Go away,” she said. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

The voice fell silent.

But the accusations against God hung heavily in the room. Grace didn’t want to talk to God, but she thought that it was only fair that He be given an opportunity to respond. She asked God about each specific accusation that she had heard. Silence. She fell asleep.

The next day, Grace went to a nature spot where she often liked to think. Sitting on a brown rock, she brought up the accusations again to God. Silence. As night fell, she went home.

The next day, she returned to the nature spot. Again, silence. But as she walked home, she sensed a voice say, “You don’t need to know the answers to these questions that you are asking. You need to have faith and trust.”

“That’s true,” she said. “I don’t need to know the answers. But I do need to know that You are good. Right now, I don’t know that You are good.”

At home, Grace opened the Adult Bible Study Guide and began to read. As she read, she sensed a voice say, “Look up.”

Looking up, she saw a picture from a coloring book on her refrigerator. The picture had been given to her by a fifth-grade student and it depicted Jesus’ cross and the words of John 3:16. “You did that for us, Jesus,” Grace said. “Since You did that, You are good. You really are good. I can trust You, even though I don’t have answers to all my questions.”

Andrew McChesney is editor for Adventist Missions.

World Church Prayer Requests

February 23 - 28, 2024

• Pray for Global Youth Day coming up March 16th. Pray that young people all around the world will “show up” and get involved being the hands and feet of Jesus. To learn more, visit: https://www.gcyouthministries.org/events-and-proje...
• Pray for the Inter-European Division, for Europe, and for the church members especially in Spain as they prepare for a special “Back to the Altar” conference in June of 2024.
• Pray that believers worldwide, would embrace and live the practical seven discipleship principles of “Back to the Altar.” To learn more visit: www.backtothealtar.org
• Pray for our publishing houses around the globe, that they will have funds, resources as well as quality materials to print, for God’s glory.
• Pray that we as believers will be obedient to God’s Word, that His Spirit will be poured out. (See Acts 5:32)

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