Bright Lights

John 1:5 (NIV) – “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

        I am convinced that there is no darkness like a pitch black night under a Georgia sky.  On a moonless, overcast night where no light from celestial bodies penetrates through the blackness; there seems to be such vast emptiness that it is difficult to see your hand in front of your face.  The darkness is so pervasive it seems that you can almost carve through it with a knife.

    One very dark night I was driving home from a semi-rural area on the outskirts of town.  I had to use my high beam light setting because regular light just did not seem to illuminate the road well enough and I could barely see anything off on the side.  Deer and other nocturnal animals are deadly dangerous when they amble into the roadway and get mesmerized by the car lights.  The old adage – “deer in the headlights” to depict someone who is physically there but mentally somewhere else is a good analogy of what happens when we rumble around in the dark (sin) and then are thrust into the loving light of Jesus.

      When we are living in sin we are hanging around the fringes of life. God has great things for us and he needs us to get off the side lines and cross over into the blessings he has prepared for us.  Like deer, the longer we linger in the darkness on the sidelines of living, the more blinded we are when we find our way into the Light.   Don’t be like the illusive deer which stand motionless in the middle of their decision; - should it return to the familiarity of the darkness; should it run for unknown territory or remain mesmerized in the middle of the road?

       As I traveled toward my home I noticed that many of the cars that were coming toward me and racing into the blackness of the rural countryside were equipped with high intensity halogen headlights.  They cast a wide beam of light so bright it appears to be blue rather than white.  Jesus is the LIGHT of the world and when we put him first in our lives he will illuminate all that is around us and pierce into the darkness to make our way safe and comfortable.   Don’t get used to having one foot in the dark and the other testing the light.  God wants our whole commitment.  We must consistently ask the Holy Spirit to show us areas where we are too comfortable on the edge of darkness.  Pray for Jesus to shine his Light on those situations and rebuke the sin and its dangers away from our lives.

Every day is a good day.  It is up to us to make it a GREAT day!  Be Blessed! This is the Year of Manifestation.  Dr. JoAnn