“I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light” (Acts 26:17–18).
IN THE DARK
We sometimes keep someone in the dark for a good reason, such as a surprise birthday party, but quite often people are kept in the dark for nefarious reasons. People then find out they have been kept in the dark while someone was cheating them.
Being in the dark is a common experience. If you randomly stopped twenty people in town and asked them “Why are we born, and why does the universe exist?” Some of them would probably say “Well, we don’t know do we?” And perhaps some would offer a suggestion why we are all here, but it would only be a suggestion. In other words they are “in the dark” to why we are here and the meaning of life.
However, if we know Christ, we also know that “thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev 4:11), so we are not in the dark about our existence, we are made because God willed it to be so, and our purpose is to please him. We please the Lord by bearing good fruit.
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit” (John 15:16). The Lord wants us to bear good fruit that is pleasing to him.
The enemy of our souls wants us kept in the dark, but the Lord desires to bring us out into the light. We praise God that we have met and know the “light of the world” the Lord Jesus Christ.
“The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Matt 4:16).
We move forward in the light, not stumbling around hitting things in the darkness. “The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble” (Prov 4:19).
Once we are able to see with the eyes of faith, the universe takes on a new look, we can see clearly because Jesus leads the way. Even in death Jesus has paved a way for us: “he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Heb 2:9). So even in the valley of the shadow of death there is light for us, he leads us and guides us, his rod and his staff comfort us.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor 4:18).
For “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). If we have faith in Christ, we can see; we have moved from darkness to light.
Praise God, “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13).
The Apostle Paul was commissioned by the Lord Jesus to turn people from darkness to light, that’s our calling too: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light” (Eph 5:8).
Dear Lord Jesus, help us to let our light shine, that people may see it, we pray.