The Bible for Women

Weekly Devotional

Light in the Darkness

For those of us who live on the Gulf Coast, hurricanes become a part of our lives. The longer we live here, the better prepared we become. We learn when to prepare, what to prepare, and how much to prepare. We often learn to predict whether the storm will turn east or west. When a hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico and we realize that we are "in the cone" we buy water, fill up the gas jugs, make sure our generator is working, stock up on batteries, candles, flashlights and vienna sausages ( no one really eats them, but it's just what we do). When the hurricane hits, the first thing that happens is the power goes out. Depending on the strength of the storm, the power can stay off days and even weeks. If that storm happens to hit at night, the darkness is frightening. The wind is howling, the rain is falling, a tree limb cracks- and we can't see a thing.

When we encounter darkness, what is the first thing we do? We find the flashlight. We light a candle. If we are at school or work and the power goes out, what do we do? We crack open a door to the outside. We move the curtains away from the window. Even if we have lived in our homes for years, in darkness, we can still trip over furniture. Even in a power outage, we will walk in a room and out of habit, flip on the light switch. I recently attended a party with a consultant who sold candles. A terrible storm brewed outside and we were nervous about the power going out, when a comment arose from among the ladies, "Well, we have plenty of candles!" We desire light. Why? Because light is good. Genesis 1:3-4 " 'And God said let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness."

A friend of mine lost his daughter to suicide after her struggle with a mental illness. He and his wife now work countless hours in suicide prevention. A theme that they have appropriately chosen in this work is "Out of the Darkness." Why? Because darkness is scary. We don't often know what we will find in the darkness. Living in darkness creates an environment for us to make decisions that we wouldn't make if we were living in the light. We don't understand the struggles of those who live daily in the darkness of mental illness.

Knowing this,why is it that some of us actually choose to wander into darkness when we don't know what we will find there? In Exodus 10, God used darkness as a punishment for the Egyptians. Job repeatedly describes his plight as being in darkness. Psalm 107 relates darkness to deep gloom. Ecclesiastes 2:13 states, "I saw that widsom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness."

Hell is dark, "For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 25:29-30

Sin is dark. When Christ carried the sins of the world, God could not even be a light for his own son- the sinless, spotless lamb of God . Mark 15:33-34, "At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

To live in the darkness of sin is a choice. John 3:18-20 states, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."

Isaiah 29:15 states, "Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD,who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?" Although we have chosen to live in the darkness of sin, we cannot hide from God. God knows we have chosen this path. And my sisters, we have chosen a path in which God cannot follow. Let us not linger in the darkness, but return to the light.

How do we live in the light of Christ? How do we live in the hope of eternal life? In John 8:12, John writes, " When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." We must not take the step into the darkness of sin. We must not step into the darkness of gossip, criticism, negativism, adultery, judgmental attitudes, lying, isolation, hatefulness, and the list can go on. We must reach out to our friends, our sisters, our parents, our brothers, our children who have taken that path into the darkness caused by sin. We must hand them a candle, a flashlight, a flood light and pull them up.

Luke 11:33-36"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you."

Our life is a road- paths with many branches. May our eyes be good so that our body is full of light. Let us choose the lighted paths, the ones in which we can see the road clearly, the ones in which we see Christ at the end reaching out his hand to lead us home.

May God bless your week. Margie