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

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
BEWARE DECEPTION   Deuteronomy 18:9 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. Deuteronomy 12:29-30 “When the Lord your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land, do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’ Pragmatics was the downfall of Israel when they took possession of the Promised Land. To the unredeemed eye, it seemed that the fertility gods and agricultural gods of the pagan nations actually were helping the indigenous peoples. Just because something works does not make it right or good.  God promised to prosper His people if they would trust Him to the point of obeying His Word. God's Word is not empty. When He directs and commands, it is always for...
Post a Comment
Read more
 INFINITELY MORE Ephesians 3:20-21 " Now all glory to God, Who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.   Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." In the Gospel of John, many of His followers turned away because of the covenant commitment He required of those who would follow Him. That covenant declared that what was to happen to Jesus would also happen to them. We, too, must lay our lives down and choose the will and way of God's Kingdom over all else. Those in the crowd knew that in Jerusalem, the Jewish religious leaders were plotting and planning Jesus' destruction. To follow Jesus to that degree required denying self and the thrall of the world and its ways, even to the point of laying one's life down by refusing to deny the Lord and His salvation. Jesus turned to the 12 and asked, " Are you also going to leave?" ( John 6:67-...
Post a Comment
Read more