Day 17

Our first experience of God’s light was when we were saved..
We heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and light penetrated our darkness, convicting us inwardly. We saw our sinfulness, and we saw the Savior. The shining of light caused us to repent and turn to God. We believed in the resurrected Jesus and all He did for us, and we received Him as our Savior. We were born in our spirit with the life of God. Thank God, His light brought life into us!..
After our initial salvation, we need to grow in God’s life..
– We experience light in God’s Word.
Truth’s shining light guides me in my choices and decisions; the revelation of Your Word makes my pathway clear. (Psalms 119:105)
– We experience light by our inner sense.
Because Jesus Christ now lives in us, He’s the light of life in us, and He lets us know how He feels about everything in our life. He does this by giving us an inner sense, a consciousness or feeling, of what He approves or disapproves of, what makes Him happy and what makes Him unhappy. That inner sense is the light of life shining in us.
What should we do when God’s light shines?
When we experience God’s light shining and speaking by the Word in us, we should respect and obey that light..
Here are examples of obeying the light.
– Let’s say in your Bible reading you come to Ephesians 5:15-16
“Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
As you pray over these words, opening your spirit to receive them, the Lord speaks to you. He shines on the amount of time you spend online, not for work or study but for amusement. In His light, you become aware of the negative effect all that screen time has had on you. You see it has eaten up the time you should have spent doing other things. The light convicts you about the time you’ve wasted.
You could ignore this shining. But let’s say that instead, you respond to the Lord by praying,
“Lord, You’re right. Help me redeem my time. I don’t want to waste it on so many other things. Help me to limit my time online so I can do the things I’m supposed to do. Lord, I need You. Strengthen me and supply me to obey You in this. Amen.”
As you respond positively and go along with the Lord’s shining on this matter, you receive more life.
– Let’s say a friend sends you a text message that rubs you the wrong way. Your first reaction is to immediately respond out of irritation. As you type an angry reply, you begin to feel uneasy, and you don’t have any peace. Instead, you have a feeling that’s saying, “Stop.” That feeling is the light of life, shining in your inner sense. It’s easy to ignore, especially when you’re upset.
But suppose you yield to His shining and say, “Okay, Lord, I’ll stop and wait. What do You want to write? How are You responding?” You delete what you wrote and spend time to open to the Lord. As you obey the light of your inner sense in this matter, more life is imparted into you. You then write a reply to your friend, not in yourself but in Christ, taking Him as your life in this situation.
Just imagine how much our text messages would change if we obeyed this sense of life!
More importantly, imagine how much the life of God will grow in us if we obey the light whenever He shines on us..
“Light shines in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious, compassionate, and righteous.….” (Psalm 112:4)