To Encourage You

John 3:19 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. “

Do you like to be “kept in the dark” about things that are important for your life?  Have you ever been aggravated because people in authority were making decisions and taking actions that impacted you, but you were unaware of it because no one ever told you?  So often that’s the way legislation seems to work. People are hard at work changing the law, but they keep it hidden until the last minute, lest someone should find out and rain on their parade.  Often such laws are hidden away in other bills that are passed to the ignorance of anyone who isn’t paying very careful attention to all that is going on in Harrisburg or Washington, D.C.  It’s so aggravating!  But what is so strange is how many people choose to be kept in the dark. As the Scripture above tells us, many people actually “love darkness rather than light.”  And why do they love darkness?  “Because their deeds are evil.”  Evil does it’s work in the darkness.  It doesn’t want to be exposed. It’s deliciously appealing to our sinful nature, and we don’t want the light to expose our behavior for what it really is.  We will go to great lengths to keep others in the dark about ourselves, regardless of the impact our actions are currently or will eventually have on them.  Isn’t that the way it is with adultery?  Isn’t that the way it is with addictions of various types, be it to drugs, alcohol, pornography, or anything else?  Isn’t that the way embezzlement works – or things like the recent college entrance cheating scandal? 

While no one involved in such efforts wants to be kept in the dark about things that affect their lives, they are perfectly comfortable with keeping others in the dark about their own lives, regardless of how it may impact those people.  The God Who created us doesn’t want anyone to be in the dark. He doesn’t want us to be shocked to find out things that were going on to our own detriment, all because we were in the dark about them. This One Who has come to give us light is the very “Light of the World (John 8:12)” and “in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).”  While He obviously knows more than we do – infinitely more – what He has chosen not to tell us is for our good, and never our detriment.  But everything we need to know, everything critical for our present and future well-being, all the hidden dangers, all the information we need to live life in a way that will bring blessing and not destruction, He has told us in His Word.  This wonderful book is “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105).”  So, what’s your desire?  Do you really want to be kept in the dark about the most important issues of life?  Surely, such an attitude makes no sense at all, when you think about it, for which of us in our right mind really enjoys being kept in the dark.  But the fact of the matter is, without Christ, we are actually living the deception that to be in the dark spiritually is a good thing rather than the absolute disaster that it really is.  As the old hymn says in such a clear way for those who realize they’ve been living in darkness and are sick and tired of it: “The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin, The Light of the world is Jesus! Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in; The Light of the world is Jesus!  Come to the light, ’tis shining for thee; Sweetly the light has dawned upon me; Once I was blind, but now I can see: The Light of the world is Jesus!”