Once Darkness, Now Light

Today's Reading:
1 Chronicles 26:12-27:34
Ephesians 5:1-33
Psalm 109:21-31 
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Focus Verses: Ephesians 5:8-14
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

Insight:
The light of life and truth is in Christ. To surrender to Christ and follow him is to embrace the light and come out of the darkness of sin, corruption, and shame. In Christ, we not only follow the light, we become light--"now you are light in the Lord." We are to live as "children of the light." Rather than participating in the fruitless acts of the darkness, we expose them for what they are. We see sin for the empty thing it is and the death it brings. We wake up and rise from the dead when we come out of the darkness of sin into the bright light of Christ.

Response and Action:
I see darkness and sin for what they are. I see the shame, destruction, and death they bring. I see Christ Jesus for who he is. I see the light and truth and life he gives. My faith is in Jesus. He is my Lord and my savior. He is my light. I will love and follow him with all my heart. I want to walk in his light. I want to break free from the darkness and become light in Him. I want to have nothing to do with the darkness. With faith in Christ's grace and power, I will put aside the fruitless acts of darkness and, instead, live in truth, goodness, and righteousness.

O God. Show me your ways; guide me in your truth and lead me. Be the light that guides my way. Raise me from the darkness. Help me to follow Christ so wholeheartedly that I am changed so completely that I too become light. Help me to be honest about the darkness in my life and in the world around me. Expose it for the emptiness and death it is, O God, so that it would have no attraction for me. Fill my heart with a desire to know and experience the true light of Christ and to live in it all my days. Amen.

Spiritual Formation Verses: Matthew 5:14-16
14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Resources:
Reflecting the Glory: Meditations for Living Christ's Life in the World
by N.T. Wright