“Light has
come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their
deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil
hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds
will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that
it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of
God.”
Last week during my devotional time I came across these few verses, and they keep coming
back to me. I keep thinking about what they mean and how they can be applied to
my everyday life. And I think it boils down to being genuine.
"Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because
their deeds were evil."
How many of us say we have accepted Christ yet hide certain areas of our life. I know I
was there, I would hide feelings of insecurities, feelings of jealousy, and I
would refuse to believe that I was gossiper... So I/we stay in darkness,
because it's easier than to blast it with light. It’s easier to “think” we are
living a life of light then to truly expose who we really are. The closer I
draw to God the more I realize that there are many areas of my life that need
to be lit.
"Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that
their deeds will be exposed".
We are afraid to be exposed for the person we really are. We fail to realize that in
order for true change to occur we must expose the rawness of what is in our
hearts. We must let God into the secret dark places; allow him to bring us into
the freedom of his light. Now here is the thing, those deep dark secrets aren't
meant to be kept hidden God rescues us from those places and part of being
genuine is allowing others into that, allowing people to see that sometimes you
fail, that life Isn't always perfect... So don't play it off as it is.
I struggle with this ALOT, because the truth of the matter is I want to be perfect, I
literally strive for that (spoken like a true perfectionist), and what I have
found is that it has created this barrier with people and how people view me...
Sometimes I plain out suck. I think because of that strive people are resilient
towards me and sometimes feel that I am judging them, instead of what I want to
do... Love them. I think social media makes this harder because, let's be
real... We only put the best of ourselves on the internet (how many selfies do
you take before picking which one to post?). Because of that we lose sight of
reality, we lose sight that life isn't always the perfect moments.
My challenge for us is to come into truth because "whoever lives by the truth
comes into the light", I challenge us let's be real with each other and
stop hiding in the darkness.
Do you dare to be exposed?
