Devotional 3-17-12

“And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."
John 3:19-21

In Lent we search ourselves, we seek to expose more of ourselves to the light. This is the sort of constant turning of which Tom Craig spoke last Sunday. While we are being perfected we are imperfect still. And as such we often find, in the course of inattentive living, that we have strayed once more into darkness. In the Lenten season we try to take pause to assess just where we happen to be standing in life. If we should feel that we are standing in the darkness, it does not mean we are evil. What it does mean is that we must decide where we want to be standing.

We may choose to do what is false, denying the wrong of our sin and remaining in the darkness. In the darkness there deny the wrong for our sin. We keep our pride intact and do as we please. To do so is to do evil. We also have the option of doing what is true, that is to confess our sin to God and to repent. This is what it means to come into the light.

We come into the light so that it may be clearly seen that our deeds, not the deeds of sin but the deeds of repentance, have been done by God. It is God who calls us and welcomes us from the darkness into the light. God makes us see the lie of false righteousness and the truth of our need for grace and mercy. God overcomes the pride in us that would hide sin in the darkness.
Those who do what is true come to the light…those who do what is true repent and repent again. This is to God’s glory.

God, whether we come into the light, whether we stand stubbornly or fearfully in the darkness, or whether we waiver in the twilight shadows between, we are never hidden from you - even if we want to be. The darkness is as the light to you and you see us more plainly than we see ourselves. Have mercy upon us Lord. Help us to hear with assurance the call of your love to us. As you bid us to turn to you time and again, let us not grow weary or prideful or afraid. Make our hearts willing to yield, to come to the truth, to come to the light, for in the light of your love we find wholeness. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Joe Hill