Trials and Pain: The Ministry of the Night

Tozer proposes the devil, things and people being what they are, it is necessary for God to use the hammer, the file and the furnace in His holy work of preparing a saint for true sainthood. It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.

For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
--Psalm 30:5

But there is a limit to man's ability to live without joy. Even Christ could endure the cross only because of the joy set before Him. The strongest steel breaks if kept too long under unrelieved tension. God knows exactly how much pressure each one of us can take. He knows how long we can endure the night, so He gives the soul relief, first by welcome glimpses of the morning star and then by the fuller light that harbingers the morning.

Slowly you will discover God's love in your suffering. Your heart will begin to approve the whole thing. You will learn from yourself what all the schools in the world could not teach you-the healing action of faith without supporting pleasure. You will feel and understand the ministry of the night; its power to purify, to detach, to humble, to destroy the fear of death and, what is more important to you at the moment, the fear of life. And you will learn that sometimes pain can do what even joy cannot, such as exposing the vanity of earth's trifles and filling your heart with longing for the peace of heaven.
A W Tozer, That Incredible Christian

Eddie's addendum:
Wallowing at the bottom of a deep dark abyss is no place to launch life from.  I do know that I can not see in the dark.  Much moving in my blinded state will likely only cause me to fall further into the chasm.   I also know that God is with me.  No matter how deep and dark there He is also.  While I can not see in the dark He can.  I will reach out and hold fast to Him.  I will wait for His leading.  I will not move unless He guides me.  If He does not move then I remain stationary and fast to Him, waiting and absorbing the ministry of the night.

A mighty man of valor suggested to me that a body whose only point of reference was fixed to its' self would not know if it were moving until it came into the light.  He suggested that  the entire valley might be moving.  Perhaps to a high plain or even a mountain top.  Perhaps?

"Thank You, Father, for the ministry of the night, for the lessons
of pain. But thank You, too, that we're not alone in the night.
Thank You for the morning star and the glimpse of the light of
morning. Amen."