The Dark in Darkness

Sunday’s Monday

The Dark in Darkness

I am noticing an increasing trend of disrespect between people on social media sites. It seems that most users tend to believe that readers should fall in line with thinking as they do. In reading many post the bias and convictions within their head, overrides the spiritual feelings of the heart thus their personal conflict comes shining through. Most will try to conceal inner conflicts (good versus evil) within the deepest, darkest depts of their innermost being. However, that deep, dark secret of double mindedness will come flickering through their darkness. It cannot be helped! My pastor explained this to me many years ago, “a person cannot live contrary to what they truly believe!” They will flounder and continually reshape their actions to fit what they want people to perceive them to be and it is during those moments of reshaping that their darkness shines through.

I know what Jesus inspired Luke to write in Luke 12:2-3 (NLT), 2 The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. 3 Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear! What I don’t know or understand, is why do “we” think that we are smarter than God when we hide things from Him? We can no more hide things from God, than we can ourselves as He tells us in Hebrews 4:13 (NLT), Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable. Like me, you may find that in your early years you were running from God to maintain your current lifestyle. But God has shown me over the last 20 years that I was not running from Him (as I believed) because He wasn’t the problem. I was running from ME (I was the problem) and there was no escape! No matter where I went, Me, Myself and I was always there!

I can see now, looking over the many revelations God has shared with me, one of the biggest came in the late 1990s and it was STOP with the first impression of others. God even sent me a messenger to example what He was teaching in real time life, I saw Jesus’ spirit at work, and He led me to become a disciple. Should you find yourself a little perplexed as to my intent up to this point. I will explain with precision to give a clear confession as my example. Prior to the early 1990s I had a terrible habit of knowing whether I would like you in the first 2 minutes of meeting you. I had a biased hidden measuring agenda and if you failed to measure up, we would not be friends. Of course, I couldn’t even pass or measure up to my own standards but that was ok, it was my list ergo I was exempt or that is what I thought. Until I met a man who had no prerequisites for the people he met, therefore first opinion went out the window. After a year or so of observing him live out this lifestyle of acceptance. I asked the question, why do you put up with the uncaring and sometimes belligerent people you meet? That is when God gave him that big old eye-opening hammer to smack me right between the eyes! His words still burn within my soul; “You just never know where that person has been or what it has taken to get them where they are.” As we talked he went on to say, it is our mandate from Jesus to share His love with everyone, treat them with respect and kindness, and bring a little encouragement into their day, no matter how brief the encounter. WOW! And I say again WOW! That made such an impression on me that it hurt! I think the main reason was because it came from within my darkness! No one knew my secret; I was simply protecting myself from what I considered undesirables or hopeless. I could not see that my dark disregard for others was shining through my darkness for others to recognize. I was living Matthew 23:28 (NLT), Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.

However, God allowed me to see, I was once an undesirable and hopeless until God sent His witness’s to live out what is written in James 3:17 (NLT), But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. Through their allowing Jesus’ light to flow through them they were able to bring light into my darkness causing me to confess my secret(s) to Jesus and seek favor with His Holy Spirit to overcome it. The result of allowing God’s trinity to openly examine my darkness, I find myself living more of what is written in 1 Peter 2:1 (NLT), So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Today I find myself praying that song titled, Out Of My Darkness And Into His Light! By Legacy Five.

This week I offer up a twofold prayer for all of us, one as a warning and the second as a promise. Father God: I pray that we will open our eyes and understand that which you inspired in Matthew 23:37 (NLT), Jesus Grieves over Jerusalem 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. And then find the wisdom that you have instilled inside each of us in 1 Peter 5:10 (NLT), In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So, after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. Lord erase the dark inside our darkness, fill each of us with your light allowing only that which you desire to be seen by those you wish for us to witness to and may you influence this world through our Christlike lifestyle. Amen

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK BY BEING A BLESSING TO OTHERS!

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