Light

When it is nap time, I sit in the dark with my little grandson, and rock him till he is drowsy, then I put him down and he falls right to sleep. However, if the blind is cracked even a little bit, he holds out, staring at the light. He has learned that light means it is time to get up! The dark is not his friend.

It is not our friend either, the things that we fear most reside in darkness. Hurts. Disappointments. Depression. Oppression. Lies. Sin. Infidelity. Deception. Death. And a host of unimaginable monsters.

Christians, however, rescued from the realm of darkness are brought into the kingdom of light by Christ Jesus. Because God has saved us by grace through faith in the precious blood of Jesus, we have escaped darkness eternally. Darkness is not our destiny.

The fears that cloak themselves in darkness cannot harm us. When light shines on evil and wicked things then, like cockroaches, they scurry away. Oh, they are still there, lurking in the darkness, and they are still waiting for us to stumble over them but as long as we live in the light, we have nothing to fear. Light is good and God is light.

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” — 1 John 1:5 (NIV)

There is no darkness in God and as his children we live in him – we live surrounded by light. We have become children of light. We may still have to endure dark things, but they cannot defeat us, we overcome in the light. We have put away the things of darkness. Or have we?

Though our status has changed – we are no longer in darkness, we are in the realm of light – there are still times when we seem to prefer darkness. We make blinds out of our agendas, our pride, our ego, our arrogance, our schemes, our ambition, our personality, our self-righteousness and even our ignorance and pull them down  attempting to block the light. We cannot hide the light; we can only attempt to hide from it. Our blinds don’t remove the light, they just make it harder for us to see it.

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” — John 3:19 (NIV)

“But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” — Proverbs 4:19 (NIV)

It is impossible for children of light to live in darkness. But we do try to visit the darkness, and we may think that we succeed, but God is light and his light shines whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

We cannot hide our secrets in darkness. We cannot hide our dark thoughts. We cannot walk on a dark path without being seen. We cannot hold back or turn off God’s light. God’s light is always with us illuminating the very darkness that we think might hide our unrighteous acts.

God’s light continues to shine into the dark corners of our hearts, convicting us of hidden sin so that we can confess it. His light helps us focus our minds on Scripture to correct wrong thinking. He shines his light of truth onto our path so that we can see to repent and return to the way of holiness.

By God’s grace, the Holy Spirit illumines us. He brings light into our souls and helps us to understand the things of God. He brings Scripture that we’ve studied to remembrance. He guides us in truth. He opens the eyes of our hearts and fills us with light.

Light is truth, hope, joy, courage, purity, understanding, revelation, guidance and direction, healing and cleansing. Because there is no darkness in God, there is nothing to fear.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?” – Psalm 27:1 NIV

Sometimes, though, I think the thing we fear most is the light because of what the light does: it exposes things. It exposes our limited knowledge and how comfortably we have wrapped ourselves in a blanket of ignorance.

Is that a comfortable place for you? Would you rather stay in the dark than open the Word of God and let the light of God’s truth transform your thinking and living?

Jesus is the Light of the World. He came to bring you into the light. Will you submit to him and fully embrace the light. Will you study God’s Word and get to know him so that his light can shine through you more brilliantly?

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” — John 8:12(NIV)

“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” –John 12:46 (NIV)

We have no excuse for not walking in light. We have no excuse for stumbling around in confusion and chaos. We have no excuse for tripping over things hidden in the dark. We have no excuse for fearing the dark. We have the Word of God to light our path and the light of life within us.

This summer (2016) I have chosen to highlight an attribute of God each week in the blog posts. For the entire catalog of attributes, please click on this link: Attributes of God

 For individual blog posts click on one of the following links: 

Spirit Knowable Creator Wisdom Father Good Just All Knowing Unchanging Eternal Truth Beautiful