The Light

I lay down in my bed with a great sigh of relief. It was rest time and the children were tucked quietly in their rooms. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t exactly QUIET, but they were IN their rooms which was the chief directive. A fluffy pillow cradled my head. A cozy blanket encircled me. My eyes grew heavy and began to close.

Then, without warning, an anxious thought rose out of my sleep-misted mind and began circling. The theme was my children.

“They’ll get into something dangerous if you go to sleep!” The thought murmured. Another thought joined it. “What if you go to sleep, someone chokes, and you never hear it? You should always stay alert! You never know WHAT will happen!” The third virulent fear is universal to mothers. So insidious, so furtive, that you probably entertain it without understanding the maker of those thoughts. Thoughts of death, of destruction. Rumors of darkness, though we live in the city of light. Like sharks circling a shipwrecked castaway, the thoughts began to take over my tired mind.

Suddenly, like a ray of light dispelling the dark, words formed in my mind.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength.” (Isaiah 26:3-4)

Mortal wounds to an enemy cloaked in shadow. A shield of faith against the fiery darts of the wicked one.(Ephesians 6:16) Peace, perfect peace to guard and protect me.

I have to keep my eyes on Jesus and His peace.

When I am busy, my mind is distracted by the pressing needs of the crowd here in my home. My to-do list, and even my own fleshly desires can take my eyes off of Jesus at the very moment I should be relying wholly on Him. I don’t always see when the enemy comes to throw worry, and anxiety and fear in my path.

In Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie series, the main character, Frodo, is given a cloak from the elves that allows him to camouflage himself against his enemies. I remember breathlessly watching the scene in which the enemy walks close enough to touch Frodo, yet marches on because the invisibility cloak completely masked him as a boulder.

This is how the enemy works sometimes. Camouflage. Disguise. Pretense. Yet the Word of God is stronger than anything the devil uses.

“I am the light of the world” John 8:12

In John 8:12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world, He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” Darkness and light cannot coexist. Anywhere light is, darkness is NOT. In the same way, anywhere the WORD, Jesus, is, the enemy cannot be. Philippians 2:9-11 says, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The Game Plan

So what should we do when we notice evidence of the enemy at work? What is our game plan when we begin to rest on anxiety and fear instead of resting in the peace of God? The Bible says in Ephesians 6 to put on the whole armor of God so that we can fight against the spiritual armies of darkness. One of the most potent pieces of that armor is found in verse 17: “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God”. Our salvation, our trust in the Lord Jesus’s power to save is the most important piece of that armor. Our reliance on the mighty power of Christ’s blood shed for us on the cross, takes us from darkness, to light. Ephesians 5:8 and 11(ESV) says this,

“For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…..Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

The second part of Ephesians 6:17 says, “(take) the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God”.

The only way to dispel darkness is to REPLACE IT WITH LIGHT. For example, in my house, I am constantly reorganizing. It’s a running battle of desperation against the mess that six sweet, beautiful, messy children make. I reorganized a closet the other day. Totally cleaned it out. I put a few clothes on the hanging rack and yet the bottom of the closet was empty. It. Was. Awesome. Yet only a few weeks later, I opened it and there were baseball gloves, a giant carry-all of baseball equipment, winter gloves, hats, socks, bows and arrows, cars, blocks, and pieces of trash scattered on the floor. The problem was this: I didn’t replace all that emptiness with anything. So people noticed that nice clean space and decided it was a great place to throw all their random junk.

You’ve got to replace darkness with Light

If there is a place in your life where darkness keeps trying to sneak in, you’ve got to fight back with the sword of the Spirit. You’ve got to fight back with the Word of God. You’ve got to replace darkness WITH light.

So when you begin to feel depression wash over your soul, and anxiety feels like a merciless taskmaster, throw Psalms 94:17-19 at the enemy. “Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul would soon have settled in silence. If I say, ‘My foot slips,’ Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.”

When you feel like you’ve reached the end of your rope, recite Psalm 3:3: “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, My glory, and the One who lifts up my head”.

When you feel forgotten, meditate on Lamentations 3: 21-26. “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

Take a moment:

1. Where do you feel the darkness encroaching in your life? List out the areas where worry, anxiety, and fear are hitting you hard.

2. Use the internet, a concordance, or the dictionary in the back of your bible to find verses dealing with your problem area. For example, search on the internet, “Verses about peace in the bible” or “Verses that deal with fear”.

3. Find a specific verse that speaks to you and write it down. Put it in a place you will see it often, like over your kitchen sink, on your car steering wheel, or on your bathroom mirror, and work on memorizing it.

Pray:
“Lord, Your light, and your power is able to drive out any darkness. Remind me today to focus on Your Word instead of my problem. Give me the wisdom to uncover the enemy where he has disguised himself, and the strength to fight back with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Thank You for your mercy and grace poured out in abundance for me. Thank you that Your compassion toward me is brand new every single morning. Oh Jesus I am in awe of You! In the mighty Name of Jesus, Amen.