It’s an eerie feeling standing in pitch black hundreds of feet underground.
God bless coal miners.
I visited an old mine in England several years ago. At the bottom, our guide told us to turn off our helmet lamps.
Sometimes the only way we see our true need for light is to experience how dark the darkness is.
A single flicker of light would’ve broken the blackness enveloping us. But it took all of us turning our headlamps off to surround us in pitch black.
When our days get darker — and they will — here are five truths we need to know:
1. Light can break darkness, but darkness can never overcome light.
That’s good news in a world that seems to be getting darker every year.
Can anyone say Presidential Elections?
Fortunately, Christ is a fountain of cascading light.
Light shines brightest in the dark. The darker it gets, the brighter Christ’s light will shine.
“In him [Christ] was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
~ John 1:4-5
As great as this news is, even the brightest light goes unnoticed by the blind. And apart from Christ, we’re all blind.
2. God knows how to open our eyes to Light.
God knows what each of us needs in order to see the light of His truth.
For some, He sends a spotlight.
A spotlight will stop a deer in its tracks. A spotlight of truth will open our eyes and stop us, too.
God doesn’t always send a “spotlight.” Often He lets His Light grow brighter gradually, like when Christ healed the blind man in stages. (Mark 8:24-25)
Christ opens our eyes to more and more Light until, finally, we see clearly.
In heaven, our vision will be crystal clear. (I Corinthians 13:12)
Until that day, we could be standing in thick muck and not even realize it.
We may think we’re in a good place until His Light reveals the truth.
3. Christ’s Light reveals the truth of where we are.
When my oldest sister went off to college, I claimed her bedroom.
The walls were dark panelling. The rug was a dark super cool shag. (Yes, it was the 70’s.)
I loved the room, but all that darkness made me long for more light.
I rummaged through the closet until I found the right bulb.
An oversized 300 watt bulb.
When I plugged that powerful bulb into the ceiling, airplanes tried to land in our driveway.
It was perfect.
Except now I saw dirt in my room I couldn’t see before. Time for a major cleaning, but I didn’t care because I loved the light.
Christ’s Light reveals how dark our world and our hearts are.
Those who love His Light are glad for Christ to expose the crud in our hearts. We want to see and be cleansed.
Those who don’t love His Light still need to see.
There’s no hope for any of us getting rid of sin we can’t see.
No one turns to a Savior they don’t know they need.
Christ shines His Light to expose our need so He can meet it, not so He can condemn us.
4. Sometimes God has to let us experience darkness to understand how much we need the Light.
I can’t say for sure what God’s plans for our Presidential Elections are, but sometimes I wonder if He isn’t about to turn out all the light to get our attention?
Is He going to let our country get so dark that we hunger for His Light?
Regardless of what happens in this world — and in our Presidential election — we can rest in the truth that at the very least darkness isn’t winning.
I realize at times it seems like Satan is winning, but he’s not. He’s already lost.
He’s never won. Anything he seems to have won, God allowed him to have. (Check out the book of Job for a prime example.)
For Satan to win, he has to beat God. That’s not happening.
Perception isn’t always reality.
Darkness may take up residence in the White House for the next four years, but no matter how dark the darkness gets, it’s still not going to overcome Christ’s Light.
5. If God leads us—or allows us to wander—down a dark path, we can know it was necessary and His Light with us.
God always gives us exactly what we need.
As hard as it is to hear, sometimes He sees we need trials. Ugh!
But God always gives us the Light we need to follow Him through the trial to victory.
In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
~ I Peter 1:6-7
God is never random, unaware or vindictive. He’s always working out His good and kind will for us.
When darkness surrounds us, Christ will light our path and lead us to safety.
But we have to follow that Light.
A lighthouse doesn’t drag a ship into safe waters. It merely reveals the way.
We all have to choose to respond to the Light God reveals.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. ~ John 14:6 NASB
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
~ John 1:4 NASB
You’re a fountain of cascading light, and you open our eyes to light.
~ Psalm 36:9 MSG
Whatever you’re facing today, do not fear.
Walk in the Light.
Let Christ deal with the darkness.
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