Light?

1 John 1:5-10

5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

Examine / Explain

This is a call to self-examination of our spiritual walk. Do we understand our freedom in Christ, or do we claim we understand and yet live in darkness? Do we understand we were bought with Jesus’ blood because we are all sinners? Do we confess our sins? Do we live a forgiven lifestyle? Do we display the light that we are supposed to have?

How do I apply this to my life?

What is flowing out of me? Am I stuck in a doom and gloom because of the world falling apart around me? The constant broken car. There is not enough money in savings. The decay of the natural world. With all that worry, am I living in the darkness? If I am, then I am a liar. And the God of light who lives in me is not being shown to the dark world. Publicly, others would not know my fears and pains of life. They would be hidden, so does that add hypocrites to my list? I know human nature will never measure up to God’s standards, but I also know we are to walk in freedom. To be good stewards of what we have. Not to be perfect, but to live and do in freedom. To work on a broken-down car because I was taught how, and it saves me money. The fact that I have the money in savings to get the parts for the car. All by God’s grace, any of it is possible. I am nothing and have nothing without God’s mighty hand. I am saved from the penalty of my sins. Miracle! I can still struggle with sin, and yet I can come to him with confession, not for salvation again. But because I am saved and will forgive. Not so I can keep doing the same sins repeatedly but to turn and head in a different direction. Are we tired of deceiving ourselves about our sins? Some things we do are instinctive because we have trained our bodies to perform a certain way for decades. Others are full-on choices we make. Are those the ones we truly admit our faults and failures? Do we take responsibility for those? The more we bury those, the more we will act out against a holy God.

What is my response?

Father, I’m afraid I don’t spend enough time talking with You. Do I confess to you? Yes. But in our relationship, I feel like I may still be running from You first and coming back to You like a prodigal son. I need to be pursuing You even while the temptation turns to sin. So often we try hiding ourselves from an all-knowing God. Not possible. So we continue to deceive ourselves so that we, as humans, can run from our committed sins. That if we avoid them long enough they will go away. HA! All that does is take us deeper than we want to go. Father, I don’t want to be deceived by anyone or myself. It causes me to pause when I say this. But, shine Your light in the dark places of my heart. They must be exposed to the light if they are to be turned away from. Expose the areas where I think I am doing good. Change my heart and perspective to align with You. I always need work. I don’t want to be blind to it. And I have to let it go when You put your finger on it. Just showing means nothing what our actions. Have faith and keep hustling.