Have you ever been outside in a strange place with little to no light? It can be scary. Your imagination seems to drift to what is hiding around the next corner or you question if anything or anyone is lurking, waiting to pounce on you. When we are in darkness, we are not thinking of rainbows and butterflies, but are instead thinking if there are evil and dark things waiting for us. We quickly walk to just get to a place where there is light or to have a light with us so we can see what is really in front of us.
This is how we live in the world. You see, we live in a dark world, and the darkness surrounds us on all sides, waiting to snatch us and pull us down to even more darkness. Temptations, trials, tribulations, are all dark places to go; and Satan, the evil one, has demons and evil people to do his biddings to drag and keep us out of the light of Christ.
Before answering the call to come to Christ, our Lord and Savior, we were residing in spiritual darkness. We can all remember how our lives were – giving into lusts, being prideful and selfish, and enjoying the things of sin. Yet, when we heard and responded ‘yes’ to the call of Jesus, the lights were turned on, and we witnessed the darkness disappear. We saw what the darkness of our lives really were – sin and death, and we were no longer bound in a life void of light.
Before Christ, we did not know how to navigate the world we live in. We were a ship without a rudder, just drifting this way or that with no direction, no destination to go to. All we did was wake up each day with no end goal in mind. Sure, we had long-term goals like retirement or avoiding an assisted living home when we got older, but these things were it, nothing else. We did not contemplate death because it scared us, and we did not consider eternity because we were too involved living for ourselves in the world.
Then we came to Christ. We each have our own testimony of how we came to Christ, and each story is unique and wonderful. When we came to Christ, we said goodbye to the world and darkness and let Christ be our guiding light for our everyday and tomorrows. No longer were we adrift, but we now had a mission, a goal, and a fulfilled future with Him.
John 8:12 says, “ Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” This is a promise He gave us, that if we follow Him, we will have the light of life. Those who follow Christ have the light of life in them. The opposite is just as true: if you do not follow Jesus, you do not have light in you.
Notice that there is no mention of a grey area anywhere in the above verse or the Bible? It is an either-or statement that the Bible gives us. There is no discussion about having one foot in darkness and the other in the light; it is about serving the world or God, as stated in Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Some people do not want to hear this because they want the best of both worlds. They want to seek riches (can be money, fame, prestige, etc.) while at the same time serving Christ. This is impossible because we love one or the other. There is no way around this; as much as we may try to justify living both, or convincing ourselves of such, we must choose to serve one or the other.
When we choose to have Christ as our guiding light in our lives, we will be able to navigate this dark world to walk and stay on the narrow road to heaven and not the wide road to destruction. We must always want His guiding light in our lives. Not sometimes or only on Sunday mornings, but each waking moment of each day. Each and every day we need to renew and reset our minds to stay on Christ.
The times we are witnessing and living in call us more than ever to trust and keep our trust in the work of Christ on the cross. Christ was not sacrificed so we could live in darkness but to live in His light. He died to set us free from darkness, from the fear of death and the trials going on because His victory over death is our victory over death and evil as well.
Even now, though, there are professing Christians who are running blindly during these times as if they have no light to guide them. Their faith is being tested, and they are failing. They are fearful of the current tribulations we are facing and are putting their faith in worldly solutions, putting their trust in the world and not in our faith. They go to church looking for His light but still live in the darkness of fear.
It begs the question of where church leaders are. Where are they leading their flock or what are they teaching them? Based on the response of a lot of Christians out there, the churches are failing at teaching about having trust and gaining strength in our faith by following His guiding light.
It is the church leader’s conscious choice to either give feel-good messages or messages of how to face the darkness perpetuating our world right now. There is a lack of messages on absolute truth and the reality that we are facing the last days. Church leaders fear losing numbers of attendees in their congregation, but the truth is not scary; and if offends some folks and they leave the church, so be it because truth needs to be preached!
In these trying times, it is important to hold fast to the light of Christ. Satan wants to snuff the light out of lives through the things happening right now. He wants us to question our faith and stumble in our trust in the promises in the Bible. He wants us to forget that Christ already defeated him and instead believe we are abandoned and there is no hope in Christ. For some, this is happening, or has already happened. Their reaction to the current events shows where their trust is, and it is not in Christ’s guiding light.
If you are slipping in your trust and looking for comfort, know that Christ is the light of the world, and His light will never be extinguished. He is with us and standing with us; and through Him, comfort can be found. We need not fear anything because we have Christ to light our path and bring us the peace and trust we need to face the ills we have today, and will have surely have before we are raptured home to be with Christ.