But you are A CHOSEN
RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so
that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light; 1
Peter 2:9
Out of the Darkness…
Darkness – the absence of light. Darkness can mean so many things. Sometimes it is a feeling or a mood. Sometimes it is a shade. Sometimes it is the night outside. Sometimes it just simply means the lights are off. Often darkness is associated with fear, evil, scary things. The darkness frightens us for many reasons, one of the biggest being that you simply cannot see – you don’t know what is there or what to expect. When you don’t know what is there or what to expect you may begin to completely make it up, not even realizing that is what you are doing. We can hear a sound in the dark and make up a thousand terrifying things that it could be only to finally turn on the light and see that it was nothing scary at all. I did that as a kid and I confess I have done it a time or two as an adult.
Darkness – the absence of light. Darkness can mean so many things. Sometimes it is a feeling or a mood. Sometimes it is a shade. Sometimes it is the night outside. Sometimes it just simply means the lights are off. Often darkness is associated with fear, evil, scary things. The darkness frightens us for many reasons, one of the biggest being that you simply cannot see – you don’t know what is there or what to expect. When you don’t know what is there or what to expect you may begin to completely make it up, not even realizing that is what you are doing. We can hear a sound in the dark and make up a thousand terrifying things that it could be only to finally turn on the light and see that it was nothing scary at all. I did that as a kid and I confess I have done it a time or two as an adult.
Under the cover of
darkness you can hide a lot of stuff.
That is why so much corruption happens at night. It is harder to see. During the daytime, the bright light of the
sun exposes things that are hidden at night.
It is the same way with our sin.
We can hide our sin in the dark places of our heart but hiding it does
not make it go away. We can hide our
problems in the dark recesses of our lives, but they are still there. They don’t get solved by keeping them a
secret. The light of God exposes all
these things in our lives – sins, secrets, etc…
We can hide nothing from Him.
Into His Marvelous
Light…
Sun. I love the sun for so many reasons. The sun is warm; it is a beautiful color and makes the world sparkle in its light. A sun-shiny day is so much better than a dreary day, and everything is so much clearer in the bright light of day. You can see everything that was hidden in the dark of the night. When you go to the dentist what does he do? He turns on a bright light so he can see to fix the problem. The same is true with a doctor. They need to be able to see everything clearly or they can’t help us.
Sun. I love the sun for so many reasons. The sun is warm; it is a beautiful color and makes the world sparkle in its light. A sun-shiny day is so much better than a dreary day, and everything is so much clearer in the bright light of day. You can see everything that was hidden in the dark of the night. When you go to the dentist what does he do? He turns on a bright light so he can see to fix the problem. The same is true with a doctor. They need to be able to see everything clearly or they can’t help us.
Light exposes
things. Light exposes truth. All the sin
and secrets that we hide away are exposed by the light of God - His marvelous light. The weight and burden of all the sin secrets
we harbor are not really hidden at all.
They may be hidden from the world but they have never been hidden to our
Heavenly Father. We are really just hiding
them from ourselves. When we allow them
to be exposed in his marvelous light we find grace and mercy too. He loves us and does not want us to hide from
Him. He wants us to give it all to Him –
strengths, weaknesses, sin, attitudes, wrong feelings, etc… His love is unconditional and
all-encompassing. He knows everything
already and He still calls us His sons and daughters, a royal priesthood,
chosen by God.
Have you ever felt
a burden lifted when you had a problem you were worried about and you were
keeping it to yourself or when you needed to confess to someone and ask
forgiveness? There is nothing like the
relief that comes when the cat is finally out of the bag and you are not
straining under the burden of darkness.
Leave the darkness and go to the light.
Allow the burden to be lifted from you by the one who cares more about
you than any human being. Taste the
freedom and declare His excellencies!
Scripture to Claim:
For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. John 3:20-21
For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. John 3:20-21
