Gift of God Devotional

“There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths. When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up, kills the poor and needy, and in the night steals forth like a thief. The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk; he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ and he keeps his face concealed. In the dark, thieves break into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they want nothing to do with the light. For all of them, midnight is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness.” Job‬ ‭24‬:‭13‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬-‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Sin likes the dark. I don’t mean literal nighttime, although that is often the case; instead, I mean the hidden, the out of sight. If you know you are doing something you’re not supposed to, you hide it, right? Adam and Eve hid from God and tried to cover themselves with leaves. David had a man killed. All through the Bible, and in life, we see instances of darkness – of people sinning and trying to hide it. We have this sense of shame, this sense of “I should not be doing this.”

Now, in today’s world, we glorify sin. There’s something wrong with you if you don’t support it or do it. You’re the problem if you don’t participate. 

But we are called to be a light in this dark world. Are you hiding in your sin, or are you a light to those around you? Are you walking with God and in the light, or are you living in the secrets and shadows? 

I challenge you to look up every instance Jesus talks about being a light in the world. Spoiler alert: it a lot! Flip through the Gospels, especially the book of John, and find these little lamps on the pages