Jesus is light
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Have you ever tried to give God just a piece of you? Have you attempted to keep control over certain aspects of your life? You could say, “Jesus, I love you! I want you to enter into my life and change me God, BUT I want to keep control over this one aspect of my life.” We could all fill in the blank with work, relationships, finances, disease, addiction, hurt, pain and etc. Well, you know what happens when we try and control things? It stays in the dark.
The Lord showed me a beautiful picture this morning as I was sitting outside ushering in His presence. He showed me a tree that was sitting on our back porch, which was half in the light and half covered in the dark. As you can imagine, the half that was in the light was alive and thriving, while the other half was dead and dying.
What a good picture of what it looks like when we try and hold on to things and not allow Jesus to fully enter our lives. We are called to lay our life down at His feet. Not just a part of it – the whole thing! Jesus, you are worthy of it all. He is worthy of laying down our whole life. He is worthy of us being pulled out of our comfort zones. He deserves our every breath. He deserves our whole life- our all. He wants our whole heart not just pieces of it.
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
In this chapter, Jesus is talking to the church in Laodicea. He is explaining how they have strayed away from being laid down lovers of Jesus. Yikes. He would spit us out of His mouth if we are living lukewarm in Christ. How convicting? We are not called to live lukewarm in Christ. We are called to be alive and on fire for Jesus. We are called to give Him every aspect of our life. We are called to love Him with our whole hearts. He is ALIVE! He is the King of Kings. He is worth going all in for.
“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.”
When we invite Jesus into the midst of our worry and doubt, He will replace it with peace and confidence in Him. He will remove the emptiness and fill us with His presence. The darkness cannot stay dark with Jesus in the midst. I love the analogy of a lamp in a room. I want you to picture one of the rooms in your house or apartment. You are walking through the room in the middle of the night, and you reach out to the lamp and turn it on. In an instance, the room is filled with light and you can see. The darkness has to flee. There is no in between. There is no gray area with Jesus. Guys, this is exactly what Jesus does for us. When we hand over the things we try to keep in the darkness, He WILL free us from them in an INSTANT. He WILL bring light and joy to the situation or feelings we may have had. He will even remove the scales from our eyes, and He will give us a Heavenly perspective. He is the light of life.
“And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”
Jesus is life! He is the light of life! In Him, there is no darkness. Following Him means laying it all down, not just a piece, our whole life. When we do lay everything at His feet, He will bring life to the situation you are in. He will fill you with peace and comfort. He will turn your mourning into dancing. When you release whatever you are holding onto, sit back and watch what He will do! Just like the tree, whatever you are experiencing will become alive and thriving.
You may be reading this and thinking I can’t think of anything that I need to lay down or bring to the light. Sometimes there are things in our subconscious we don’t even know about that we need to let go of, and this is where Holy Spirit can help you. I encourage you to invite Him in wherever you are. You can ask Him something as simple as this, “Holy Spirit I ask for you to reveal in me if there is anything not of you. I pray you will bring anything to the surface that may be hindering me from seeing your goodness. I pray that you will show me what is keeping me from experiencing more of you. Holy Spirit I want you to bring to light anything in the dark. I don’t want to just give you pieces of me, but I want to give you my whole heart.”
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us...”
You are not alone in this. I am praying this same prayer because I don’t want anything to hinder me from experiencing the depths of our Heavenly Father! No matter how deep you go, there is always more! Therefore, today, I am reminded to empty myself before Him and allow His light to fill anything hiding in the darkness. Father, remove anything in me that is not of you. Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Jesus, you are invited into my life! I am on fire for you Lord. I never want to live a life lukewarm with you. You deserve my all. You deserve to be worshiped and praised all the days of my life.
