A buddy of mine asked if I would write a devotion for his youth group’s summer camp. What an honor! Maybe it will bless you as well. Here’s what I wrote:
Most of us would probably never admit that we are scared of the dark, and in all reality we probably don’t think about very often. It’s usually only until we walk in our house…at night…and all the lights are out…and the power is out (okay, maybe the power isn’t out, but it adds to the effect)…and we can’t see a thing. We hear a strange sound down the hallway and reach for the flashlight on our phone. Once we turn it on, we shine it down the hallway and see the cat scratching on the carpet (why do cats do that anyway?!)! All is well because we shined a light on what didn’t seem to fit in our situation.
Illustration: Make a cup with your hands (like you are holding a golf ball in your hands minus the golf ball). Look inside. What’s there? Darkness! Close your thumbs over the opening to keep that darkness trapped in there…don’t let it out! Count to 3 and release your darkness into the air. What happened?! It disappeared! Why? Because the light overcame the darkness. Think about this-light is never the absence of darkness, but darkness is always the absence of light.
Paul uses the illustration of darkness and light in his letter to Ephesus. Let’s check out Ephesians 5:8-14:
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful to even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”
At some point in your life you have experienced darkness, not just being in a dark house or building, but spiritual darkness. The darkness that Paul is referring to here is a spiritual darkness that comes from not having the Jesus in your life to light the way. Being that Jesus is the light, He comes in and reveals to you what doesn’t need to be there. Why? So that you can have a perfect relationship with Him.
Jesus wants nothing more than to come in our lives and make us holy and to move from darkness into light. When this happens, we won’t want to go back to the darkness because we know how much better living in the light really is.
THINK ABOUT IT:
~Where are you in your walk with Christ? Are you living in the darkness or living in the light?
~If Jesus were to shine a flashlight down the hallway of our lives, what would He find that doesn’t need to be there?
~What’s stopping you from getting rid of it?
~What would be the upside of exposing what is in the darkness and letting Jesus shine His light on your life?
Jesus offers us freedom, and that freedom comes when we surrender our lives to the light of the Son! May today be the day we let the Light shine in!
Ryan Garrett 