My Contribution to Still Speaking
Just as God brought the earth out of darkness in the beginning of time, so shall he bring us out of darkness by filling our hearts with His glorious light.
Clouds gathered and rain fell on a particular Sunday morning as I entered my Sunday School class. I was seven and unsaved, but before the class ended, I had become a new child of God. I remember the drive home as our car splashed through puddles on the road, the aftermath of rain washing everything clean. The clouds had turned white and parted allowing the sun to shine through and I felt in my heart like I too had been washed clean and a light shined in my heart.
As a child, I only knew this about salvation— Jesus died on the cross for my sins so I could go to heaven when I die. I didn’t know the light that shined in my heart had another purpose.
The light that fills our soul is God’s righteousness. It is His righteousness, not ours, that God sees in us and loves. And it is His righteousness in us that makes us the light of the world. This light is a spiritual light that shines on the spiritual deeds of darkness not only in the world, but also in us. Even with God’s light shining in our soul, our mind still dwells in the darkness of human thinking because of our sin nature.
When we were born again, we became a new creation and received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, God changes our dark thinking into the thinking of Christ through the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God— God’s Word.
Through salvation we have forgiveness of sin, and after salvation, our minds are cleansed from the darkness of human thinking through the washing of the water of the Word. With this cleansing, we begin to think with the mind of Christ and walk in the light as He is in the light.
One thing all believers have in common is their belief in Christ, what we don’t have in common is our varying degrees of transformation, or spiritual growth. Just as we have free will to choose salvation, we also have free will to choose spiritual growth. Those who choose to have their mind renewed and grow spiritually will be richly rewarded in heaven because their life will reflect their love for God and desire to please and glorify Him.
This was a principle I did not know as a child. No one told me my thinking needed to be renewed. After years of struggling to living the Christian life my way, I surrendered and began studying and applying God’s Word. As my thinking changed, so did my response to problems. I started using God’s wisdom instead of my emotions and my life stabilized. I’m not perfect, but God’s Word in me is. Do you desire to mature spiritually and think with the mind of Christ?
It is only through the knowledge and application of God’s Word can the Holy Spirit remove the darkness of our human thinking. I used to think reading and memorizing Scripture was enough, but it’s not. We must learn God’s principles from qualified teachers who teach from an understanding of the original languages and then apply those truths to our life. There are no short cuts, nor does God bless those who refuse to grow spiritually. There is only one way to be God’s light in a dark world— applying God’s Word to our life.
When we fill our soul with God’s Word, we please and glorify the Father the same way Jesus did. If we want to think like Jesus, be like Jesus, and glorify the Father like Jesus, we must fill our souls with the light of God’s Word.
Our days are numbered by God and what we do with them are up to us. God commands us to live as children of Light.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of Light… Ephesians 5:8 (NIV)
The question is: Do you love God enough to obey His command?
