I want to try my best to draw this illustration for you. I wan you to think of day and night time.
Also, remember this. You were given a map telling you where your tent is that you have to find. You have also found this tent hundreds of times before.
But...
You've fallen into the darkness:
It's the middle of the night and the moon is nowhere to be found. You are walking through a woods in the middle of nowhere trying to find where you had your tent set up for the night. You are terrified because you cannot see anything.You also don't have a flashlight, a candle, or a phone. It's just you and the darkness and you are so confused. What happened to you? You've found the tent in the dark hundreds of times...but I guess that is what happens when you fall into darkness.
The crazy thing was that when the sun came up, you were able to find the tent right away. The light that the sun brought was so amazing that it wasn't going to be soon forgotten. The light also reminded of the light that was experienced the day before. You were so happy to be able to see everything again.
The next night rolls around and you're tasked with finding the tent again. The moon is nowhere to be found the second consecutive night. You start to become worried and think that you are about to be up all night trying to find the tent. Then all of a sudden you remember the light from the previous day. You suddenly remember which way to go because the light had been revealed to you.
Why could you find the tent? Because of the light. God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
I hope that illustration made sense to you. Why did I use it? Our lives are so much like that story after we experience that God is light. That is the power and beauty of it.
We experience highs and lows along with light and darkness. Over and over again.
One of the things that have helped me the most with that is how you view your life. Are you looking at everything you experience on a daily basis as if it's a high or a low...light or darkness?
How you think about things is everything. If you know me at all, I would like to think that you think of me as an optimistic and outgoing people person. It takes a lot for me to get down and to show that I am down. I am so happy all of the time because of God's love for me and for you. There are too many things to be thankful in this life to be sad and down all of the time. It takes more muscles to frown than to smile right? Well it takes a lot more out of you to be down on yourself than it does for you to be happy. LIFE IS JUST SO GOOD.
"If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7)
If we claim to have fellowship and walk in darkness we lie and do not live out the truth. Just like when I told you to find the tent in the darkness. You thought that you were going to be able to find that tent with no problem. But it was too dark. You couldn't live out what you wanted to because of the darkness.
When you woke up the next morning and remembered/experienced the light, you remembered that you had to walk in the light. When you walked in the light you found the tent!
When we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another. How beautiful is that?
Light represents what is good, pure, true, holy, and reliable. Darkness represents what is sinful and evil. The statement "God is light" means that God is perfectly holy and true and that he alone can provide us out of the darkness and sin. Light is also related to truth in that light exposes whatever exists, whether it is good or bad. In the dark, good and evil look alike; in the light, they can be distinguished. Just as the darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, sin cannot exist in the presence of a holy God. If we want to have a relationship with God, we must put aside out sinful ways of living. To claim that we belong to him but then to go out and live for ourselves is hypocrisy. Christ will expose and judge the deceit.
Bear with me now, I want relate the light to us confessing our sins. I whole heartily believe that when you live your life in the light, have fellowship with others and are continually growing relationship with God, it is easier to see where you sin and because you are more aware of your sins it is easier to confess your sins.
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not is us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinner, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10)
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Think about that. Are you ever in a place where you are denying that you are sinful? Because if you are, you are saying that God didn't die for your sins.
On the other hand, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us. When we confess our sins, God draws us to himself. When we sin we should never want to try and hide it because that doesn't get your anywhere.
Remember this: All people are sinners by nature and practice. At conversion all of our sins are forgiven-past, present, and future. Even after we become Christians, we still sin and still need to confess. This kind of confession is not offered to gain God's acceptance, but to remove the barrier to fellowship that our sin has put between us and him. It is difficult, however , for many people to admit their faults and shortcomings, even to God. It takes humility and honesty to recognize our weaknesses, and most of us would rather pretend that we are strong. But we need not fear revealing our sins to God-he knows them already. He will not push us away, not matter what we've done. Instead he will draw us to himself.
When we begin to live in the light on a daily basis, it becomes easier for us to reveal our sins. I hope that makes some sense to whoever reads this post. I also hope and pray that this post made sense as a whole. I felt led to touch on a few different things and I really don't know if it all connected well but that is okay. Like I have said before, as long as one person is encouraged, that is enough for me.
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