AuburnChick's Adventures

A few months ago, Tom, one of my church’s pastors, sent me an email asking if I would be interested in writing a devotional for the Lent Reader that he was putting together for the upcoming Easter season.  He provided the Bible verse that he wanted me to focus on and let me chew on the idea for a while.

I wasn’t sure if I would have time, but I prayed about it.

In the end, I felt that God wanted me to write it.

So I did.

The Lent Reader has been organized into five weekly devotions (with the exception of the week of Easter, which has seven).

We’re currently reading Week 5.

The week that my devotion appears in.

I wanted to share what I wrote with you.

Ephesians 5:8-14 (NIV)

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 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. ¹³ But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. ¹⁴ This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Darkness and light – these are two words that followers of Christ often encounter in Bible passages and in Christian music.  How often do we see and hear these words yet give them scant attention?  Have you ever stopped to consider what the words really mean, though?

The Hebrew word for darkness is “choshek,” which translates into, “separated from God’s glory because of works.”  Compare this definition to that of light, or “ohr” in Hebrew.  The Hebrew definition for light is “God connected to man.” What we see is that prior to God sending Jesus, His Son, to earth, we were separated from Him because we relied on a mentality that stressed work done by our own hands rather than the grace that is given by God.  Grace is a free gift, and there is not a magic number of works that we can perform that will put us in right standing with God.

But, is it enough, as The Message Bible says, to “climb out of our coffins” and let Christ’s light shine on us?  Does God say, “Oh, you’re good now.  You’re forgiven.  We’re best buds now.  Go lead a life of luxury.  Your work is finished.”  Most assuredly not!  We are instructed to “live as children of light” and expose the “deeds of darkness.”

We must, at this point, reflect on what it means to live as children of the light.  Just as lit candles in a sunny room do not serve the purpose they were created for – to dispel darkness, we, being infused with God’s Spirit and light, do little good if we don’t leave the confines of our comfortable lives and reach out to others living in darkness.  Verse 13 makes an incredible promise that everything that is illuminated, or enlightened to comprehend God’s word, will become a light.  Praise be to God for His abundant love and mercy that pulled us out of darkness and into the light.

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: Christianity, devotion, Ephesians, Lent |