Children of the Light

This post has been on my heart for a few weeks now and now I am finally sitting down to write it.

I heard a story recently about a girl who was found in an abusive situation in 2008 in Florida where she had been kept in a dark, back room without any windows or lights for many years. When she was found, she was carried outside and all she could do was scream and try and run back into the dark room again.

This young girl had been in the dark for so long, that the light scared her. She didn't know that light was natural and good because she had only known the darkness. I think we are sometimes like that girl.

When we encounter Christ, we are called to come into the light. Darkness has no place where Christ is. However, many of us are so used to the darkness of our world and our sin that we cower and run from the light.

 

Even when we accept Christ and His goodness and put off our old selves, often times we hold onto some of our old ways. Whether that be the pureness of our thoughts, the way we treat others, white lies, the way we look at others, or something else. The darkness has held us for so long that we cannot imagine coming fully into the light.

The problem is that with Christ, light and darkness cannot coexist. We are either for Christ or against Him. Lukewarm is not an option.

Revelations 3 talks of God "spitting out" lukewarm people and Paul often warns Christians in his letters of the danger of being lukewarm. To be cold is better than lukewarm.

1 Thessalonians 5:5 tells us that we are children of the light. "For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don't belong to darkness and night."

And John 1:5 says that, "Light shines in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it."

 

Martin Luther King said that "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that."

 

God has called us to be children of the light. That is not a destination, but a daily journey. It takes constantly putting to death our old selves and sin. It takes having the courage to admit that we don't have all the answers. It takes humility and the strength to apologize. Most of all, it takes Christ being the center of our lives.

 

We live in a dark world that is growing darker all the time, but we serve the King of the Light! We need not hide in darkness. We need not fear the light. Yes, the light may reveal our pain and ugliness, but it also reveals our need for grace. And, my friends, we all need grace.

 

We cannot even begin to drive out the darkness in our world until we drive out the darkness in ourselves. In Christ though, light can break through the darkness.

 

In Christ, we can be set free from the bondage on sin.

 

In Christ, we can shine.

 

In Christ, we can be children of the light!