Appropriate the Light
Jan 16, 2020 | by Anthony Wade
Undoubtedly, each of us has heard at one time or another that God is love (1 John 4:16). It is one of the key certainties that we have learned about who our Heavenly Father is and what His nature entails. Because of that truth, we can rest in the fact that our creator IS love and we can then view all of life’s situations and circumstances through that lens to make sure that we keep a proper view. Among many other benefits, that gives us assurance that God is not the source of the difficult obstacles in our life. Knowing that God is love enables the believer to live confidently in the middle of an uncertain world.
As wonderful as it is that so many folks know that God is love, it is equally disappointing to realize how few truly grasp another key element of His nature. We see in 1 John 1:5 that God is LIGHT. That is such an important truth for the believer to comprehend because there is unquestionably a lot of darkness out there in the world. In fact, darkness is such a major aspect of the enemy’s agenda, his evil workers are called the rulers of the darkness of this world in Ephesians 6:12. Darkness is meant to keep you guessing at what is around the next corner of your life’s road. Beyond that, when we do come up against an obstacle, the enemy would like nothing more than for us to be blind to the solution.
Have you ever walked into a dark room? I’m sure that we all have. When you first got into that room, particularly if it was an unfamiliar place like a hotel room or a place that you hadn’t been to many times, what was the very first thing that you did? Did you close the door behind you and run straight into the middle of that room as fast as you possibly could? Of course you didn’t. That would be ridiculous. What if you walked into your office one day and found out that the lights didn’t work. If you didn’t have any windows in that office, would you just go on about your business and start your day like nothing was wrong? I seriously doubt you would do that. Would you sit down and not do anything except analyze that darkness from every angle, trying desperately to figure out how it worked before you decided how to take action? Of course you wouldn’t. What would you do? You would simply TURN ON THE LIGHT!
As silly as those examples are above, most Christians handle adversity in exactly the same way. Satan has deceived the believer into thinking that when we walk into a situation that is unfamiliar, we need to either sit down and study the problem from every angle, continue on like nothing is wrong, or run headfirst into destruction. The heartbreak is that millions of people are falling for that strategy nearly every day of their lives. Instead of running straight to the answer, they sit around and waste so much time analyzing the crisis. God’s Word is supposed to light our pathway (Psalm 119:105) and that same Word gives us understanding (Psalm 119:130). The best news is that, as a new creation in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 5:8 says you not only HAVE God’s light available to you, you ARE that light!
God wants us to have wisdom and revelation into every aspect of our lives (Ephesians 1:17). The Amplified Bible says that this revelation is “insight into mysteries and secrets in the deep and intimate knowledge of Him” and goes on to tell us in verse 18 that this happens “by having the eyes of your heart flooded with LIGHT”. Imagine that for a minute. Every bit of revelation and insight that you need to eradicate any trace of darkness in your life is already resident on the inside of you! God has promised that you could have the eyes of your understanding enlightened, but YOU have to keep that switch turned on. You wouldn’t sit around and study the darkness in a room. You would simply make it your number one priority to find that light switch. Do the same in your life and turn on your light today!
Today’s Word Study: Ephesians 5:8-17