God is Light
The Light of God
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
1 John 1:5
Have you ever walked in complete darkness? Have you closed your eyes and tried to walk to another room or got up in the middle of the night to walk to the bathroom? How about having the power go out and realizing just how dark everything is? Total darkness sucks.
Our world has done a good job of lighting things up. In the beginning, people relied on the light of the moon and the stars at night. Along came fire and there was a new light. And not too long after fire, there were candles and lamp oil. And then electricity was born. Now our world is polluted with light. And it’s all artificial. It’s a light that isn’t everlasting and it’s a light that deceives our souls with a sense of comfort that is short lived. After every period of darkness, we long for the light.
A world that is absent of light is dark. And that dark world is scary. Bad things lurk in shadows. People take advantage of dark times to commit crime, hide and to lure innocents and to be mischievous. There is nothing good on the dark side of light
Light and dark are starkly contrasting. Wherever there is light, dark is missing - except for the byproduct of a shadow. Wherever there is dark, light is absent. Darkness can’t cast a shadow because it is ‘the darkest’ of dark. Only light can cast a shadow. Darkness cannot create light.
The things of this world that are evil, scary and luring are dark. Everything bad is considered in darkness.
We use security lights to light up our yards and businesses at night. Our vehicles have interior and exterior lights. Street lights light up alleyways and roads. Artificial light is used all around us to draw us in, warn us away or to make things easier for us. We light up signs, paths and parking lots.
But all of these lights are temporary. Eventually these lights will have to be replaced. Some may burn out and never get replaced, leaving an opportunity for darkness to reign forever.
The darkness is associated with bad things. I repeat, nothing good is associated with the dark.
In our lives the dark is equal to sin. God is light and therefor, He is absent of sin. If we live in darkness we live in sin.
Remember in the beginning, God created light and he called it good? God was defining the contrast between light and dark, on the very first day. He didn’t wait until day six, it was too important. It was a critical delineation to make. It couldn’t wait. It had to be laid out in front of us immediately.
“Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
Genesis 1:3-5
It was the example of all examples laid out in the Bible, without delay. Light is good, dark is bad. God is the light and sin and evilness is the darkness.
We have to turn to God to be in the light. We can’t make the light ourselves. Only by God can we let His light shine through us. Otherwise we are dark. And if we pretend we have light - we are only deceiving ourselves. The light, must come from God.
By turning to God and living in His will, it is the only way our light can shine. We are inherently bad people. We want to do bad things. We want to behave badly and live horribly. As Paul says in Romans 7, we want to do good, but we don’t. We know to do good, but yet, we still do bad. We are drawn to it. Sucked in and coddled by sin. We gravitate to those things that once trapped us, our addictions, our lusts, our pleasure points, our endorphins are on fire and even the thrill of it all - adrenaline. There is nothing bad in the way we see our darkness, except the consequences and the sheer fact that those sins separate us from God and His light.
This is why it is so important to put God at the front of our lives. He is our light. And if He is behind us, His light will not be seen by others or seen within us. He has to be at the front.
We have to live in Gods will. We have to live to honor and glorify God. We have to lead our families to God and teach our children about God. We have to love ourselves and our neighbors - so that others will see God in us. Nobody will ever ask you about something they don’t see in you.
God is light. It is the reality and the analogy.
If you do not have light in your life, if your life is filled with darkness, depravity and deception - God is not in your life.
Even a little light in a dark place brings hope. But carrying a flashlight that produces no light, does you no good.
Our walk with God must be genuine. It must be sought after with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. Not partially. Not deceivingly. Our walk must be sincere.
Our walk with God must be diligent. We must abandon the things that bring darkness. We must chase after God with desire, submission and obedience.
And how do we do that? We fall at His feet and ask Him to take us, to use us and to let His light shine in us. We submit ourselves fully to God. Not partially. Fully. We live every single day for God - no matter the cost. We don’t play games. We don’t pretend. We invest and we live for Him.
God is our light. He is the only light in this dark and crummy world. Yes, there are good and great things in this world - and that is because of our great and good God. Not because of us, but because of His light in us.
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
I John 1:6-10
Find the Light. Stay in the Light.