A Walk in the Dark

I John 1:6

"If we say that we have fellowship with him,

and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth."

For years, I assumed
walking in darkness
only meant sinning.

Ya' know gross sins of the flesh everyone can see.

 Christians going back to sins like a dog going back to its vomit.

This can be a correct definition, but

I also assumed it meant that the person wasn't saved. 

But, in I John 1, the Lord is writing to professing believers.

We understand light clearly.

We KNOW we should be like Him,

the Light of the world.

Darkness can hit closer to home than we imagine.

When we don't walk in faith,

we are walking in darkness.

When we don't trust the Lord for the circumstances

He's allowing in our lives,

we aren't allowing His light on the path,

when we can't find joy in Him and Him alone

when troubles abound,

we are walking in darkness.

 

When we don't give Him glory in our sufferings,

even though we don't enjoy the pain and loss,

we are walking in darkness.

We've all experienced the confusion and discouragment
when a Christian friend forsakes the Lord.

Some turn to the bottle, some leave their spouses.

But walking in the darkness with sins of the flesh

begins

when they walk in darkness with sins of the heart.

 

If we don't turn TO the Lord in all our trials,

our indifference could eventually cause us to turn AWAY.

Not all crisises of faith end up in
 full-fledged rejection and sins of the flesh,

but those little turnings can still cause spiritual damage.

Not reading, not praying, not calling out to Him

with each sorrow that burdens the heart during the day
can lead us little-by-little into darkness.

If you evaluate some that have turned from the Lord,

they've had hard circumstances in their lives.

I met a Christian girl who had a child before marriage.

Her burdened heart revealed her father's affair

 caused her to turn astray.
(He was a pastor.)

 For others, the painful death of a loved one turns them from the Lord.

Still others, physical or financial suffering.

 

Walking in the Light
is a constant practice,

an exercise in changing
 dark thoughts and dark circumstances

into light with His glorious presence.


*****

I wrote this blog weeks ago,

but never posted it.

Today, the Lord used the words to chastise and encourage me.

 

I have felt the darkness this past week.
My troubles and sorrows overwhelmed me,
as I temporarily forgot to practice
turning my darkness into His Light.

Walking in the light doesn't mean there aren't

dark circumstances in your life,
it means you use the light of Jesus
to illuminate your soul and light your path.


Lamps aren't needed in Heaven,
because He's the Light.
He's also the Light of the World.
Nothing else can takes away darkness on earth.


Theologically, we believe He is the Light.

But how do you spiritually keep from
walking in darkness
when sorrows and trials overcome you?


1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light
 as He is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanses us from all sin.