" Now write another decree in the king's name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king's signet ring—for no document written in the king's name and sealed with his ring can be revoked." - Esther 8:8
What is a signet ring? The Oxford English Reference Dictionary says that a signet is a seal used instead of or with a signature as authentication and a signet ring is a ring with a seal set in it. The earliest existing rings are those found in the tombs of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians primarily used signet, or seal, rings, in which a seal engraved on the bezel can be used to authenticate documents by the wearer. A signet ring was traditionally destroyed when the owner of the ring died – it never left his or her hand. It was the way the owner conveyed authenticity of a document. If the document contained the seal, you knew it was authentic.
What is God’s signet ring for you? What exists in your life that makes you absolutely sure He exists? For all of us we go through seasons where we wonder if God is there. Even Mother Theresa struggled, writing,
“Where is my faith? Even deep down ... there is nothing but emptiness and darkness ... If there be God—please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul ... How painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith. Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal, ... What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true”
This time of questioning has been called the Dark Night of the Soul from a treatise written by Spanish poet and Roman Catholic Saint John of the Cross. It has become an expression used to describe a phase in a person's spiritual life, a metaphor for a certain loneliness and desolation. It is referenced by spiritual traditions throughout the world.
In the Christian tradition, one who has developed a strong prayer life and consistent devotion to God suddenly finds traditional prayer extremely difficult and unrewarding for an extended period of time during this "dark night." The individual may feel as though God has suddenly abandoned them or that his or her prayer life has collapsed.
Rather than resulting in devastation, however, the dark night is a blessing in disguise, whereby the individual is stripped of the spiritual ecstasy associated with acts of virtue. Although the individual may for a time seem to outwardly decline in their practices of virtue, they in reality become more virtuous, as they are being virtuous less for the spiritual rewards obtained and more out of a true love for God. It is this purgatory, a purgation of the soul, which brings purity and union with God.
In these dark periods we need to pull out all of our ‘documents’ that have been sealed with God’s signet ring. We need to recall the moments where we felt His presence. We need to review the miracles in our life, the coincidences that just might not be coincidences, the events that cannot be explained with logic and the serenity of seeing His majesty.
He is there, His seal is evident if we look, His signet ring is never to be destroyed.
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