Abba's Dearly Beloved

“My God turns my darkness into light”

Psalm 18:28 (NIV)

What do you see when you look at yourself? Do you listen to the sacred voice of Father God, that calls you his own or has your mirror view been hijacked and beset by the deeds and thoughts done that cause you to recoil?

When memories are jogged and hidden scars opened, when you fall into a sin of increasing familiarity does the feet of your heart cause you to run and hide rather than let these things glimpse the light?

The lie used to trap believers by Satan in their place of hiding is that God and others cannot possibly receive me if they knew who I really am and what I have done. Somehow, we think God’s love has an expiry date and is governed chiefly by performance.

This lie has already been squarely answered by Jesus and the He carried to Calvary, was nailed to, and died upon for us who get lost in the darkness of our own shortcomings or habitual sins or indulgence of self-judgement and rejection.

What is this mercy and unfailing grace that, as a dawning light piercing darkness, visits us though we thought we would never see it or that it would pass us by because of our past and/or present failings and fallings? It is Christ, the precious light that the darkness has not understood. He is the perfect high priest and the mercy seat presiding over the covenant of reconciliation between lost sons and daughters and their Heavenly Father, sealed in his own blood.

“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it”

John 1:5 (NIV)

Darkness neither comprehends, nor can overcome this light, for where those lost in darkness are influenced by the currency of judgement of what they deserve or do not deserve, the light of undeserved kindness, mercy and the extended hand of Father God’s grace in Christ is an unexpected greeting and something that we are not used to until we meet Jesus. This light of undeserved love that shines into every crack, gash and ravine of our broken imperfect hearts disarms our very worst perceptions of ourselves or others for the light that shines into our hearts does not expose to condemn but to heal. Instead, he takes off our garments of shame and rejection or judgement and clothes us with a garment of his own that represents His acceptance, pardoning and eternal love of us by God:

 “Surely He [Jesus] took [and takes] up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.”

Isaiah 53:4 (NIV)

We expect justice or punishment or perhaps believe we are not acceptable but instead our eyes are met by the loving, merciful redeeming grace of the eyes of Christ. This the grace and mercy in God’s heart that is not deserved but is generously lavished, demonstrate the higher ways, thoughts and heart found in Father God (See Isaiah 55:1-8).

When you remember who our God is and that however undeserving you may sometimes feel, God’s thoughts, countless as the sand on the seashore, and actions towards us are governed with a heart of compassion, love and mercy that we could never fully understand, we see an eternal source of light like no other that shines into the darkest of our heart’s hiding places and draws us into perfect love’s light.

Not only this but in the light of the glorious riches of His mercy, we are free to start seeing ourselves and others increasingly in the eyes of our Father God and we start to project this light into the dark spaces and places around us. As the psalmist says:

“For with you [God] is the fountain of life; in your light [the light of Christ] we see light.”

Psalm 36:9 (NIV)

©2021, Benjamin Trowbridge