Isn’t it nice when you
know you can trust something to work? For instance, when you go to sit down at
the table for dinner, you pull out the chair and you sit in it because you’re
confident that it’s going to do its job and support you. You don’t pull out the chair, examine the
structure and then sit in it carefully, not sure if it will work or not, do
you? You’re confident that it will do
its job. Let’s have the same confidence
that God will do His job.
We wrote last week that
hope will get you to the light at the end of the tunnel you’re in. Feeling hopeless can be crushing emotionally
and physically. If you have ever dealt with
depression, you know the feelings of hopelessness and the darkness that it
brings. Some have even craved the
darkness over the light, because darkness covers the things we want to hide,
while the light exposes them, but the light is where you will find hope to begin
anew.
How do you get out of the
darkness and into the light?
- · Read Scripture
- · Pray
- · Worship
- · Serve
Notice that none of those
four items are self-serving. It takes
discipline to take time out of your day to read scripture and pray. You might even have to set your alarm clock
30 minutes earlier to find the time, but it will guide you to the light. These two activities will develop your
relationship with God, because this is how you get to know Him. Listening to a pastor every week is wonderful
and beneficial, but that pastor cannot develop YOUR personal relationship with
Christ.
Worship can be done
through song, it can be done through speech, or in a myriad of ways, but the
common denominator with worship is that you are putting yourself lower than God
and acknowledging His mighty presence and power, and praising Him for it! By getting to know God and understanding that
He took our sins and washed them away is powerful. Worship Him because He loves you! Know that
He isn’t mad at you, but instead wants to bless us as joint heirs in His
kingdom. This realization can change
your world.
How did that ever
happen? How did we become so
fortunate? At some time, you were drawn
to the light. The initial light might
have come from a sermon, a song on the radio, or in an example set by
someone. The light of God wants to draw
you in out of the darkness, and He will use whatever He has to in order to get
our attention.
We definitely get closer
to God through the previous items mentioned, but serving is the fourth leg of
the chair. When you serve other people,
God shows you about your own selfishness, materialism and comfort seeking,
exposing some of the things that we should work on to become more
Christ-like. A correlation could be made
that similar to the eye being the lamp of the body, so is the heart, and
serving certainly illuminates the heart.
Michele shares this
thought, “Who have I been a light for lately?
I feel I have planted seeds in people, but am I continually shining the
light of Jesus so that others may see and want that love relationship with Him?”…
Let’s all strive to shine
a confident light that draws others in out of the darkness, and spread some
hope around.
Passages to Ponder:
Ephesians 1:18- I pray
that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the
confident hope He has given to those He called- His holy people who are His
rich and glorious inheritance.
Philippians 1:9- I pray
that your love with overflow more and more, ad that yu will keep on growing in
knowledge and understanding.
Luke 11:36-
If you are
filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant,
as though a floodlight were filling you with light.
Contributors: Karen Bromby, Kathy Derda, Michele Killion
and Kim McClure
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