Has Holy Spirit ever smacked you in the face with your own words? Lovingly, of course.
I wrote these words on January 3rd 2012, and as much as I thought they were great then (a whole 7 people read that post!) I need them so much more right now. We are going through a very dark season, but God has been gifting me books that strengthen and encourage my spirit, and friends who are lifting my family up in prayer. Now He has brought back to mind a simple observation I once made. I hope that this will encourage your heart too.
Day and Night
For the third year in a row I have "committed" to
reading the Bible all the way through. Note the quotation marks. I bought this lovely little One Year Bible a few years back to try and help me accomplish my objective that includes Old and New Testament passages as well as some from Psalms and Proverbs for every day of the year. Now I've read the first page every year for the last three years, but for the first time ever something in Genesis Chapter 1 actually caught my attention. I mean really caught it. Genesis 1 is about the creation, so it's all pretty impressive if you actually think about it, but having grown up on this stuff I have a tendency to gloss right over it. It's like gravity. Yes it's really cool when you break it down and study the mechanics of it, however nobody thinks about it on a daily basis. It just is what it is. A fact. But God has been working on my perspective, challenging me to see deeper into everything, even the stuff that appears to be pretty straightforward.
Genesis 1:14-19 (NIV)
And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights - the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning - the fourth day.
God separated light and darkness on the first day. On the fourth day He created the sun, moon and stars. What gets me is that on the fourth day, before any animals or people roamed the earth, God put some light into the darkness. But not just that, the light governs the darkness. Yes. You read that right. The light is in control. I love it when God speaks a truth into my life like this. I'm not saying that this passage means something that it doesn't say or is symbolic. Scripture says what Scripture means. I believe in the literal 6 days of creation, 1 day of rest scenario that is recorded here. What I am saying is that often times God will use a physical truth to remind me or make me aware of a spiritual truth. And the truth is that no matter what I experience in this coming year, The Light governs my life. Day and Night. Yes, sometimes the nights are really dark, and it seems as though the darkness has taken over. Yet before I ever was, God put in place lights to govern my days, and my nights.
I don't know what scars you bear from last year, or what triumphs you've celebrated. I don't know if you've faced the new year with joy or with dread. I know for me it's always a mixture of both. There is so much that could go right, but so much that could go terribly wrong. My "resolution" this year is to not worry. I want to spend more time resting in God's grace and trusting Him to come through on the things He's promised me (in His time, of course.) and less time trying to make things go the way I think they should and fretting about the outcomes. I challenge you to do the same. I know it will be hard, and I know that sometimes it will feel impossible, but I also know that you can do all things in Christ, who gives you strength. And when all seems to be darkness around you, just remember the Light governs there too.
Originally published on my blog, Heart Work, on January 3 2012.
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