Jesus said, “I am the light of the world, Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12    

It is above me, beside me and in me, the light of Jesus. He is the voice that calls me home and the voice that shepherds me there. The more I listen and follow, the more His Holy Spirit speaks—or is it the more He speaks, the more I listen? When I worship His radiance, the brighter my life becomes—or is it the more of His radiance, the more my gratitude swells?

  When I forget to walk in His way, I get caught up in my own efforts. My eyes turn dim with my own distractions. My failures feel absolute when I act absolutely alone. Oh, but His light is warm. It is the hand of God touching this lost child. It softens my strident ego and startles my lying pride as a sudden, mellow slice of glow at the break of day.  The light of Jesus eclipses those dark hours adrift in wretchedness and obscurity. He is the gentle, mighty, restorative threshold. He is the way out of the lie, the only way to the life God desires for me. 

Having beheld His splendor, I know that nothing else will do. My sorry self may try to save itself over and over again, for it was broken in this world and is inclined to return to seek its healing here. But as I heard Father Bill, a great man in recovery circles, say: Two sickies don’t make a wellie. The things of this world can not be the source of my healing and everlasting life. It is Jesus who has saved me once and for all.  He is the way.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21

 

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48

These are Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, speaking to the crowds following Him early in His ministry.  Jesus taught them how to live for God and not for the world, to turn to God’s ways and God’s word.  He spoke of the law in a new way, not dismissing it in any way, but fulfilling it in every way.

Because God is perfect, I must be perfect to be held within the fold of His holiness.  Because of the fall and my sin, this is impossible for me accomplish alone. I need Jesus. He made the ultimate sacrifice to become my holiness, my perfection. His blood shed for me perfects me. Still, here on this ground, in this body, my ways are not perfect.  My access to holiness is only in Him. When I defer and acknowledge Him, He is there. He is the finisheded work I could never accomplish. His work—and His work only—is perfection. 

It is arrogant and prideful to believe I can set my own standards and work perfectly to reach them. But inviting Jesus into my hours is allowing God’s perfect will.  When I read Jesus’ words: Be perfect, I hear: Do what I have told you. Serve Me. Let Me work in you. Prepare yourself, humble yourself, be willing for Me to work perfectly in you and in all of your ways. It is through Him I am perfected.

God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect. 2 Samuel 22:33

I have a friend who has been in and out of my life since adolescence.  Though I have enjoyed her company at times, there comes an inevitable day when I must pull away from her to restore my peace and sanity. No matter how I help her, her desperate situations and stories have no end.

It starts out innocent enough. A lunch with mutual friends, an online chat. Soon her adult daughter needs a ride home from an appointment 10 miles away. Her new kitten needs specialty food from the pet store on a snowy, winter night.  Now the same adult daughter and her boyfriend need to use my clothes washer. Finally I am picking up my friend at midnight from the hospital and fending off her verbal persuasions and manipulations to taxi her to another for the pain medications the first one refused to give her. It was this night, as I left a muttering, ungrateful person to sulk in her living room, that I was done.

When I learn who I am in Christ and begin hearing Him more clearly, I can better discern where to put my efforts. Not every need and desire of others is my job to satisfy. Not every person is mine to friend or even help. It isn’t my aim in life to choke in the smoke of a fire I have not been called to fight. I want to do the thing God has for me to do. He calls, He equips and He guides me in His good work. And if I listen and wait for His directives, I may notice His signs of caution as well, like blaring smoke detectors to keep me from getting burned.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.                        1 Corinthians 10:12

It was God who came to earth in Christ. He came to gather His people, speak to them, heal them, love them and show them the way back to Him. God came to earth in Christ to gather me under His wing and lead me home.

Psalm 8:3-4 says: When I look at your heavens, the work of your finger, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them? But He is, He loves me, He calls to me. His Holy Spirit lives within me, ever reminding me that I am a child of the Most High God. 

Perhaps I think too much. I can get stuck in place sometimes with worries, concerns, baggage, and find myself unable to carry on down the path God has set before me. My mind piles into gridlock and halts all progress. As a child, when I’d resist my parents’ direction, I’d begin my complaint and plea, “Yeah, but—“ and my father would respond, “No ‘yeahbuts!’”  At this point in the conversation I knew I had to put my hesitations aside and move.

Yes, put aside all doubts, objections and  misgivings, little one, your Father is calling. Move as He directs, trust in His voice. He speaks only to draw you to your highest good. He calls only to love you. Follow Him with assurance. And no yeahbuts.

My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ Colossians 2:2