Light It Up God!
David sang in Psalm 119:105 (NIV), "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path." In the image above you will see the same verse typed out but in that image the text was pulled from the Passion Translation. I love that translation. While the NIV may be a more familiar rendering, I feel the Passion translation of this verse is so much more enlightening (pardon the pun).
The bible isn't just God's word, it's God's truth and it's that truth which sheds a shining light on our path. That light guides us by bringing clarity to the choices and decisions set before us.
It's an awesome privilege that we get to go to God (the creator of everything) when we face a dark, confusing or scary path ahead. What a blessing to have Him light up the way we ought to go. It is not a magic formula though. When the light is shone to light the way before us, we are still the ones who have the power of choice.
The promise is that God will provide light which brings us all the illumination and revelation we need to avoid the lies, obstacles, traps, pitfalls and bad choices laying in wait for us on the path of life. What we choose to do with the information provided or if we even seek out that illumination at all however is entirely up to us.
I don't know about you but I for one am so grateful that the light from God's word (God's truth) can help me walk with clarity and unclouded vision. I don't have to stumble around in the darkness like I used to, running into every obstacle and falling into ever ditch along the way.
As a redeemed one, purchased for God by Jesus' sacrifice and filled with the Holy Spirit I can choose the light of God's liberating truth found in His word.
As we seek Him and spend time in His word, there may be a scripture that jumps out at us. That scripture is our light for the path ahead. It is not an accident or a coincidence. It is a clue and a message. It is God revealing truth to us.
When we look at our problems through the filter of that revealed truth it exposes all the lies hidden in the darkness. The ones ahead AND the ones from our past as well.
I can't tell you how often I have quoted this scripture and told others that God's word is the light on our path. Every time, I have always thought of that verse as it pertains to our forward movement. But what about where I came from?
That little notice of truth was highlighted to me by the Holy Spirit as I was pondering this blog post just last night.
God's word is a light to our whole path. The path ahead as well as the one behind us is illuminated to bring clarity to our future movements and also so we can clean up the mess left behind as well.
The saying goes, "hindsight is 20/20" right? The truth is though, that when we see with our natural eyes, sure the path over our shoulder might seem much clearer that it did when we were walking it but our natural understanding doesn't always bring us any sense of resolution, redemption or peace. Hindsight is 20/20 but it is not enough.
That's why so often we choose to try to forget the past. We want to look forward. We expect ourselves to simply come to terms with it so we can move on. That path behind us can so often be tainted with landmarks of regret, shame, self-loathing, secrets, lies and a lot of heartache and pain. We prefer to turn our back on that and forge forward. Yet we never escape it, do we? It is still there every time we turn around.
There can be so much ugliness and negativity in that rearview mirror that we don't want to even see it. So we choose to take scriptures like this one in Psalm 119:105 and shine God's light only on what lies ahead.
Most of the time we don't even think about shining light on that old road unless we are forced to by some circumstances out of our control. But even when we do consider going back to clean things up from time to time, we change our minds because shining the light of God's holy truth on our past can make us feel too vulnerable and exposed and in our own strength, the clean up process is just too hard.
Remember this beloved one, God has only good in store for us AND God's truth is a very wholistic thing. We may get a scripture that illuminates a wrong we have done or the wrong done to us and our response to it, however when we are in Christ, all our ugliness is seen through the lens of God's redemptive grace.
That grace doesn't just light up our path, it washes it clean. It deals with our junk as well as any and all generational junk we are willing to shine the truth light on, see and own.
We can trust God's truth to illuminate every area of our lives because in Him all the transgressions (the ones we are willing to own up to) are washed away.
Wait, what do you mean the ones I own up to?
Continuous revelation, confession of sin and redemption is part of the process of our journey of faith.
John tells us in 1 John 1:9 that when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins. In the Passion translation 1 John 1:9 says, "But if we freely admit our sins when his light uncovers them, he will be faithful to forgive us every time. God is just to forgive us our sins because of Christ, and he will continue to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
When we get saved, every single wrong we have ever committed or are going to commit doesn't flash across our mind so that we can effectively repent for everything all at once. We participate in salvation by faith. As we remember and confess, as His light illuminates something new (or old) and we surrender it to Him, we are continuously redeemed. That is the power of relationship. It is a two-way continuous dialogue between God and us.
We get to participate in this by choice and the more we do, the more whole and free we become. Salvation and redemption and kingdom living is not a one stop shop where a little dab will last a lifetime. God wants more than in relationship with us.
Paul tells us in Phil. 2:12 that we must walk out our salvation with fear and trembling. The Passion translation breaks it down a little more saying that we must continually live in holy awe of God and run towards the light of His presence.
That means we have to be willing to draw near to Him even though the closer we get to him the more there is to expose.
If you read all of 1 John chapter one, you'll see. John is telling us that when we spend time with God, nothing remains hidden because God-himself IS pure light. There's no point in trying to pretend that we are all good because no one is. We might as well be real before Him and stop trying to fool others and ourselves.
In our openness and willingness to face truth, cleansing and redemption can happen. When we try in futility to hide what we do not want to deal with, we end up stuck with the burden of keeping things covered up and hidden from sight while trying to walk forward making wise decisions for our future.
So God's word is a light on our whole path both future and past but there's still one more piece on that path which we should discuss before we close the book on this topic. Our current postition.
God's word shows us where we came from and it shows us the road laid out before us and it strategically helps us deal with the stretch of road we are on right now.
God's word shows us who we were, it shows us who we are becoming and one of the most powerful things it shows us is who we are today.
Interestingly, today (Tuesday Sep. 11, 2018) at sundown, marks the end of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). The year 5778 has ended and 5779 has begun. Monday was the first of Tishrei, the first month in the Hebraic year. For the Jews this is a season which represents a time to return to God and experience His glory.
The end of Rosh Hashanah also marks the beginning of the Days of Aw (10 days prior to the feast of Yom Kippur). This is the time of year when the Jewish people come before the Lord and examine their hearts to ensure that they are flowing in what He is doing. This is the season to be cleansed of all bitterness.
This is the time of year when they ask God where they may have drifted away from Him.
God has strategically placed within natural time, a mechanism of reminders for us so that we can keep a short account and continuously (or at least annually) be in contemplation of where we stand with Him.
I invite you to join me over the next week in taking time to be introspective and to allow His light to shine brightly over our past and present condition. Let's take time to repent before the Lord of anything that He highlights in our lives.
Next Wednesday (Sep 19th) is Yom Kippur (the day of atonement). Let's take this time to reflect so that next week we can lay it all at His feet and be cleansed and made new.
When we choose to align ourselves with what God has ordained for this time of year, (not out of duty or legalism but as an act of worship towards Him) we too (like the Jewish people) will be blessed.
I pray that God speaks to each of our hearts and reveals his truth light on everything that has affected our past so that we can be set free from it as we repent and walk forward in the light of the path He has set before us.
I believe God is doing a mighty work in our midst in this season. I can sense a real stirring. Can you?
I love the song, "Light of Your Face," by Jesus culture. I invite you to listen to it today after you read today's post and make this your prayer, "Let the Light of Your Face Shine Down on My Heart and Let Me See It" I pray that we all have eyes to see the light He is shining down on us. Let the lyrics of this beautiful song ministers to you today as you seek His face and may God shine His light on each of us this week.
Please leave a comment and share your thoughts with me at the bottom of this page. It really fills my cup when I hear from you.
As always, remember that you are loved and deeply cherished by Jesus and by me.
Photo by Burly Vinson on Pexels
