“It started when God said, "Light up the darkness!" and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful.” (2 Corinthians 4:6 MSG)
God’s intended purposes are good. His will is for us to experience health, wholeness, virtue, peace, and courage. He created us to live through Him, with Him, and in Him. However, many of us have wandered away. We are lost in the darkness of illness, brokenness, sinfulness, conflict, and fear.
“The farther I run away from the place where God dwells, the less I am able to hear the voice that calls me the Beloved, and the less I hear that voice, the more entangled I become in the manipulations and power games of the world.” (Henri Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal Son)
Our human nature prompts us to prove that we can live and thrive on our own, independent of God. Some of us spend our entire lives in worldly pursuits. We become entangled in manipulations and power games. Christ comes out into the shadowlands to lead us back home. Some of us are reluctant to follow. We would rather that Christ follow us with blessings, as we explore our own dark agendas. We eventually figure out that this is NOT how things work. We turn around and submit to following Christ. The external evil does not disappear, but He illuminates the darkness within us. Our lives fill up with light as we understand God. We recognize that, although we live in this world, we don’t belong here. We may experience affliction, but we are able to look beyond our suffering. Our focus becomes the Light of Christ who leads us home to the Love of God.
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