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.

Johnflysaught@gmail.com

We all suffer in our lives. It can be physical, emotional, relational, financial, etc. We don’t seek out suffering, nor do we welcome or invite it to come into our lives, but it comes nonetheless, sometimes expectedly, and sometimes we can see it in the distance. Regardless, when it hits, it plows us hard against the wall and can test our faith in our Father, but it must be kept in perspective of our faith.

In Romans 8:18, the Apostle Paul states, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

We all suffer, no doubt, and at different degrees with differing thresholds, but suffering… it is not a joyous occasion to witness in our lives. We need to keep our suffering in perspective or in context to eternity, though. Remember that we are just a wisp in the wind in the grand scheme of forever during our time in this world, and to hold onto the bigger picture will do us well when we do suffer.

No, we don’t seek out suffering, but in all honesty, as hard as it can and will be, we need to embrace it when it invades our lives and makes its presence known. This is quite the opposite of what we are taught by the world. The world tells us to avoid or mitigate suffering by turning to the world and worldly solutions, not godly solutions.

No matter how much effort we put in avoiding suffering, suffering will come. We can try to run from it, but facing it is the better course of action. Embrace it, don’t fight it, because when we face it, this is when we learn how to endure (Romans 5:3-5), not in a worldly sense but in a godly and spiritual sense in the way our Father wants us to live and grow in our sanctification journey.

The world says when we are suffering to look for the easy way out. The world does offer easy way outs, but they usually just delay or trade one form of suffering for another. What the world does not know is that the only way to address suffering is to turn to our Father.

Our Father promised us that He will not leave or abandon us.

How could He, with us as His adopted sons and daughters, turn from us and shun us in the moments of suffering? The thing is, Christian, is that He won’t. Our Father will not turn us away when we run to Him to help us.

Our Father wants us to run to Him in times of suffering. He wants to give us the wisdom and perseverance to endure what we face. Will He relieve us of our suffering? Yes, He does, and no, He doesn’t. What I mean is that, in the mysteries of God, His will is done, not ours, and He will do as He pleases whether it is to give us relief or to let us suffer a little more.

We don’t know why one of two people, both with the same or similar suffering, is granted relief by our Father while the other is not, but it is not our place to demand answers from God.

I don’t know, and you can’t know either why our Father allows some to suffer more, but what we can remember is what our Father told the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, that His grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in weakness.

So, as we squabble and complain about this or that and how miserable we are and question why God does not fix things or make things better, we will do well to remember that His grace is sufficient for us. And how true is that! That in our fleshly and rebellious lives, who are we to demand from God what He should do for us, like we know what is better for us than God Himself!? We should not because we are not above God. That He sacrificed His only Son for our sins is enough to enable us to endure anything the world throws at us.

His grace is enough in suffering. His grace for our sins and our rebellious fleshy selves is more important and more profound than our complaints and whining about this or that when we suffer. We need to keep our focus on our Father and not falter in our trust in His ways for us.

Our Father has a purpose in our suffering, for what we are going through. There is nothing that God does not know, and the suffering we endure, He is in control of that as well. Whether that suffering lasts for a short time or a season or more in our lives, we are not to question Him. If we do, we are questioning His omnipotence; and that, my friends, is sinful.

What we can ask, though, is to humbly seek from Him what we are to learn or what is He trying to impart to us from our suffering.

From my own life, I have ailments that cause constant suffering, both physical pain and mental health. Who am I to question and demand from God the “why” in a defiant manner? What power do I have over God? Absolutely none! I have, and you have, no power over God’s will for our lives in our sufferings. But some try, and some do question God’s ways. And by questioning God’s authority over our lives, we question His will and purposes for us.

When we suffer, we are to come to Him on our knees in meekness and humbleness and not complain or demand, but to humbly seek His will. What is our Father trying to impart to us during periods of suffering? What is the lesson to learn or the principle to practice? Is there wisdom to gain?

God is not an evil puppet master, pulling strings this way or that to make us suffer; He is a loving Father to us. Get it? A loving Father. Not a malicious Father, not a wavering Father, but a Father of constant mercy and grace, to be beheld by us as higher than anything, even our own understanding, as hard as it may be for some to perceive or grasp this truth.

In our suffering, our Father does not want us to bend or break in our faith, but to grow in it. Because He is God, and a just God at that, He wants us to obey Him and love Him. He doesn’t want us to stumble in our faith when we suffer but to draw nearer to Him as a child that clings to a loving parent when they need support, to be loved and supported.

I don’t know your story with your suffering, but I can tell you this: our Father is right beside us when we suffer, walking with us, and yes, sometimes carrying us through those times. Our Father knows what is best for each one of us for His glory, not ours, for His Kingdom, not our comfort.

When we lose our focus on our Father when we suffer, there are two things to do: prayer and intentional reading of His Word. Prayer is the communication we have through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross to our Father in Heaven. We can talk to Him. We can cry to Him, and we can seek His will for us.

When we intentionally read His Word, we can find and see the depth of His love for us, and we can gain wisdom in our lives and put into perspective the reasons for our suffering. In His Word, we will find comfort and peace to endure whatever the world throws at us regarding suffering.

My friends, don’t give up on our Father and His unknown ways in our suffering. Our suffering is not worth losing our relationship with our Father because He is for us, not against us. Hold fast, be strong in the Lord, and always look up.

Johnflysaught@gmail.com