Our God is alive, and in Him, we too, are the light of the world…
Category: Light
The Goodness of the Son
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life…
Psalm 23:6
It is the goodness of God that overflows into this world and makes it habitable. It is His goodness we experience that make our lives bearable, even enjoyable.
But sometimes that goodness becomes overshadowed by pain, grief, disappointment, disillusionment.
Like thick billows of never-ending clouds, they can block out the light. And sometimes there’s rain for days, weeks on end. Maybe it’s like living in Seattle.
I’m sure it can get dreary, and even depressing, and yet, there’s a certain beauty to Seattle.
The frequent drizzles allow for some of the most beautiful growth in the world, and also some of the most diverse, life-giving wildlife.
No matter how many weeks the shadows overtake the city, no one wonders if the sun is still there. They know it is, and they trust they’ll see it again.
I have to remember that when my world has been darkened with shadows for too long. The Son is still there. And His goodness will shine whether there are rain clouds that bring new growth, and maturity, and life, or He moves them away.
I have to remember that when everything in me, all my feelings and understanding want to tell me that because I don’t see or feel the Son He isn’t there.
I have to set aside my understanding and believe in what I know to be true – surely His goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life…
Because that’s who He is. What I feel doesn’t change that. What I see doesn’t change that. And I am thankful.
“Lord Jesus, help us hold onto our confidence that you are who you say you are. That you are good, and that you love us, and no matter what’s happening in our lives you’re still there, and you are still pouring out your goodness into our lives, and we are thankful.”
Cast It All!
Why is it so hard for some of us to go to God when we’re hurting?
I know for me at least, when I’m feeling down or anxious I naturally want to retreat from everyone and everything. I don’t want to have to put on happy face and pretend everything’s okay. I want to find my corner of the world and hide, and that can mean from God, too.
But instead God says to be “…casting all your care upon Him for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
The word “casting” is the same word that’s used in Luke 19:35 when the disciples cast or threw their garments onto the colt that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem.
We are to take our garments of anxiety and worry and grief and discouragement – all that we care about, big or small – and lay them upon our Savior.
Why?
Why can’t I huddle in my dank little corner of the world until I feel like coming out again?
Because Jesus tells us in Mark 4:18-19 that if we hold onto the cares of this world, we will be consumed with them instead, and the Word will be choked out and rendered unfruitful in our lives.
So I have to decide to walk in the Spirit, doing what is supernatural instead of what is natural, come out of the darkness and into God’s light, giving Him those things and people and circumstances that I care so much about knowing and trusting that He cares for me.
I hope you know that He cares for you, too. Everything that concerns you, concerns Him. Nothing is too big or too small or too old or too anything.
And the thing with God is, we don’t have to put on a happy face. He knows our heart’s pain anyway, and He hates hypocrisy. We can be real with Him. He wants us to be real with Him. We can trust Him with our deepest desires and emotions and conflicts. And then, in place of our garments of anxiety, He’ll give us a garment of praise.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Psalm 139:7-12
One
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23
Jesus prayed this prayer for you and for me. The abundant life Jesus had talked about stems from this one thing: that we yield ourselves to God with such fullness that we become one with Him. That it is His life that flows through us – His mind we think and make decisions with, His heart we love unconditionally with, His eyes of grace and mercy we see others through, His strength we serve with.
I pray that Jesus’ prayer for us is answered more and more in the coming year, and that we come to live the abundant life He promises to us. Everything we search for, everything we use in this world to try to fulfill our desires stem from our inherent need to be reconciled fully to Christ.
He is our abundant life.
And not only is that abundant life for ourselves, but the world needs to see us living it. It needs to see a compass that points to true life. The world desperately searches for hope and it needs to see that hope is found in Christ and in Him alone. We are the chosen lights to point them to Him, if only we will.
May the Lord fill your lives in the coming year with faith and hope, strength and courage, love and peace. May He be yours and you His.
In the mighty Name of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus, the Anointed One),
No Other Love
If you need a love that never gives up, a hope that never fades, mercy that never ends, grace that knows no bounds, and life everlasting, look no further than Jesus Christ. In Him, and ONLY in Him will you find all those things and so much more. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is your Creator, your Father, your Friend, your Co-laborer. The world will never hold a candle to the power of His life-giving Light, and no other love can do what His can.
Today is a new day. He stands ready to forgive you, embrace you, and clasp your hand as you walk this walk together. Will you?
“For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life in Christ Jesus the Lord. John 3:16
