CHARISSA CHEONG says we all need to let God turn on the light in the dark corners of our lives…
London, UK
PICTURE: Jeremy Bishop/Unsplash
“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” – Psalm 119:105 (NLT)
Over the past month, the Holy Spirit has been deeply convicting me about the importance of reading the Bible – and how it is not just an important practice, but a vital one.
I am thankful for the Holy Spirit’s convictions about the significance of what I consume. Although I typically have a busy schedule, on quieter days I’ve been finding myself happily binge-watching episode after episode of Netflix, and then struggling to read my Bible for longer than 15 minutes at a time.
“The light of God’s Word exposes the darkness. When we read it, it flushes out the unwanted things within us. We need the power of God’s Word to wash us daily as we walk through this messy world, and we need it to fight our spiritual battles. In Ephesians 6, the Word of God is described as the ‘Sword of the Spirit’ that helps us to fight against the powers of darkness.”
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus also talked about the need to monitor what we consume, saying, “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness.”
When we allow ourselves to read Scripture regularly, setting our eyes on its life-giving words, we’re allowing light to enter our inner beings, filling us with the Holy Spirit.
The light of God’s Word exposes the darkness. When we read it, it flushes out the unwanted things within us. We need the power of God’s Word to wash us daily as we walk through this messy world, and we need it to fight our spiritual battles. In Ephesians chapter six, the Word of God is described as the ‘Sword of the Spirit’ that helps us to fight against the powers of darkness.
But we don’t just need the Bible to help us with our spiritual or emotional needs, we also need it for every practical situation. Psalm 119 says the Word of God is a lamp to our feet, showing us the way to go as we navigate through life. Anytime we decide that we can make a decision for ourselves or direct our own futures, we are forsaking God’s guiding light and choosing to stumble around in the dark. We’re likely to trip up in that case, aren’t we?
When I’m facing a big decision in life, I often ask God for direction and then wait for an answer to drop from the sky, when in actuality, He has given me His Word to consult, and He speaks through it! Remembering this has greatly increased my expectation to hear God’s voice speaking to me and guiding me when I open the Bible, instead of just thinking it’s something I’m doing because it’s part of my routine. God’s Word is so powerful, exciting, and alive, so I don’t know why I sometimes treat like a daily crossword puzzle instead of a loving conversation with my Father.
Thanks to the deep work of the Holy Spirit, which has been shaking me out of some habits that have made me ambivalent to Scripture, I’ve been slowly learning the joys of meditating on the Word throughout my day. The Holy Spirit has been teaching me how to read a passage, and then not allow it to be immediately pushed out of my consciousness by my list of to-dos for the morning ahead, but to choose a verse that particularly struck me from that passage and to deliberately call it back to my memory throughout my day.
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Admittedly, I’ve not been that good at it so far, but I’m exciting by the prospect of allowing my mind to soak in the Word of God and seeing how much of a difference this daily brain-spa can make.
The Bible talks about the Bible a lot, describing it in many life-giving ways – it is bread, a water source, honey, and truth breathed out by God Himself. We need to Word of God to live. It is the food our souls survive on and the water that cleanses us and helps us to grow.
I hope that today, as well as every day, you will let Father God feed you with His Word. Let Him satisfy you with its sweetness. Let Him turn on the light in the dark corners of your life. Don’t shy away, but draw near to His warm fire, where His love will wrap you up, and keep you ever safe and secure in the coldness of the night.
