Skip to main content

 AM I IN THE LIGHT WHEN ALL SEEMS DARK TO ME AT THIS MOMENT?

It is the experience of believers in Jesus Christ that they sometimes come into a time, as they follow Him, a time of what can only be described as a kind of darkness. It is a moment or a season where their conscious awareness of the Lord's presence with them is gone. Note: it is not that the Lord's Presence is gone, only the conscious awareness of His Presence.

Some have called such a season as "the dark night of the soul." 

All sorts of thoughts merged the other day as I read the Words of Jesus in John 8:12, "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.”

I asked Him what this meant if I felt I was "in the dark". What came to mind was the 23rd Psalm. The LORD is my Shepherd. I am NOT my own shepherd. I don't lead myself if I am His sheep. He feeds me by His Word, waters me by the Holy Spirit, causes me to live a changed and changing Life, one that reflects His righteousness and power to save any who will believe Him. Walking through the valley of the shadow of death fearlessly because He both corrects and protects me because He is with me. 

David knew God's Presence was with him, but now, by His death and resurrection, by grace through faith, Jesus Christ lives IN me. In fact, He IS life within me, not just with me.

Psalm 27:1-2 states, "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?"

If the Lord is Life within me, if HE is my light and my salvation (not my circumstances or even my own awareness of things), then I am not walking, never walking in darkness. He is the Light of Life and in Him there is no darkness at all. Therefore, because I am His and He is in me and I am in Him, I have the light of life: Jesus Christ, Himself.

Even if I cannot see where I am going, I am not in the "dark" because He is with and in me, Eternal Light. As His sheep, I trust what He sees and believe He is leading me in paths of righteousness. I trust that HE sees, not what I can or cannot see. He is faithful to lead, guide, protect, correct, nourish, heal, and cause me to grow in His grace regardless of how I feel at any given time.

Even when I feel alone, I am not alone, because He is Life within me. I do not need to fear that, because I haven't any strong awareness of His conscious Presence, He has abandoned me. He is with me and I am His. I never walk in darkness because of Who Jesus Christ is, what He has done and is now living out within me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

 HE IS RISEN! IT IS FINISHED! After the Israelites had passed through the Red Sea by God opening the way for them to be saved, the whole of Pharoah's army, his horsemen and chariots pursued God's people into the opened way. Once they were all in, the waters flowed back into their place with suddenness and fury. Not one of the enemies survived. All perished in those waters. When Jesus Christ hung on the cross, all that sin contained, the full measure of the rebellion of mankind for all time, all the wickedness that was ever in human hearts were absorbed into the Lamb of God as He died our death, received our just judgement from God for all time, taking all that sin and death contained. In Him, sin and death died once and for all. They were overwhelmed, covered and drowned in the sea of His precious blood, poured out for the sin of the whole world. Not one enemy remained alive, all were stripped of their power to hold us in slavery to sin any longer. All their weapons were confis...
Post a Comment
Read more
 CONVICTION When the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, He doesn't ask us to make it right. We can never add to what Jesus Christ has already done on the cross to deal with the totality of our sin. The Holy Spirit asks us to accept the truth, turn from sin and turn to the Lord. Then He will make it right. Remember Who our faith depends on from start to finish, that salvation is of the Lord alone. Laying aside every hindering weight and the sin that so easily trips us up (different for everyone), we are to run the race He has given us to run with perseverance, fixing our eyes on Jesus. He is the One upon Whom our faith depends on from start to finish. He will never run out of eyesight any more that a good shepherd would go ahead of the sheep he was leading where they couldn't see to follow. Hebrews 12:1-2 "Surrounded then as we are by a great cloud of witness to the life of faith, let us strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which dogs our feet, and let us r...
Post a Comment
Read more
WHAT DO YOU BLESS? It would be an act of utter folly and disaster were I to choose to "bless" what God will not bless. God's wrath is set against anything and anyone that would try and hinder you becoming all He created you to be and to grow in by being united to Him through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is nothing arbitrary about the Word of God. He is very specific on what will make for life and what will not. Human life only becomes human life when the Holy Spirit becomes Life withing a believer. Being united to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the follower of Jesus becomes a new creation and begins to live Life as God intended. God begins the good work, and He is the One who will bring it to competition. Somethings will NEVER make for life. What God calls sin, missing the mark of what will make for life, is always sin regardless of what culture anywhere and anytime say to the contrary. Sin cannot save, heal, redeem, restore or remake...
Post a Comment
Read more