I have referenced my on and off again battle with depression a couple of times now on this platform. While I’m not ashamed of the struggles, it is difficult to put something so personal out there for all of the many opinions or pre-conceived notions to stir. I can truly understand those who don’t understand. There have been monumental milestones of growth that have occurred through these sufferings, but understand these sufferings I do not. So, it’s okay to not have a grasp on what we don’t know. We do know that there will always be things beyond our own understanding and as believers we have been shown how to handle the unknown.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5, 6
There have been times in years past where I felt 100% that God’s word had provided the very air that kept my heart beating. This is not flippant, figurative speech. It was my source of life in the darkest moments of my life.
I am reading through the Bible as are many others that I know of. I started before the new year, not setting it as a goal, just needing to learn and seek and find more of Jesus and to know what the heart of God is like. By the way, the Bible is the best place to seek more of Him.
There is a reason the verses in the Bible which refer to light catch my eye. Many of those verses I had penned onto homemade flash cards for quick reference to remind my soul of my Source of Light when the darkness threatened to consume.
So while beginning in the most logical place – Genesis – this verse seemed as if it had a huge sign on it that declared God’s provision for my weary heart. I didn’t have to go very far to find the treasure. In verse 3 it says Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. The verse right before said that darkness was on the face of the deep. God provided light for the darkness! What a glorious provision! And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness (vs.4).
Then I saw something else that just wrapped arms of love around me; Then God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night (vs. 16). He provided for us to have light even in the dark of night. Verse 17 says that God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth; while verse 18 says again that the light was to rule over the day and over the night. Light was to prevail. We had been gifted light for the darkness before we were ever created.
There may be some of you who are reading this who have not yet become a believer and follower of Jesus. I hope you learn about the saving love He has given to us, to you. My prayer is that you will find hope and love and life that you never dreamed could be given so freely.
There is another Light that the Bible tells us about. Jesus says in John chapter 8, verse 12 of the New Testament of the Holy Bible, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” Jesus, being both God and man, was the Light of God incarnate. God came to us as one of us! He left His throne to become a man who knows our suffering. What love! When we accept Jesus into our hearts to rule our souls with His light, we will no longer have to be blinded by the darkness.
Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. Micah 7:7, 8
He came to this earth to be put to death on a cross. He lived a sinless life and chose to take our punishment though He was innocent of any crime. We are all sinners – there’s not one of us who hasn’t fallen short of the glory of the ONE TRUE GOD. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. That is the end we all face, an eternity in everlasting separation from God, void of any light, if we refuse the gift of salvation Jesus gave to all who will receive. The rest of that verse in Romans 6:23 says that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Instead of condemnation, Jesus came for our salvation. He made a bridge so that we could go to the throne of God and not have to pay the debt we owe. He exchanged our own death sentence with His and in the greatest act of love ever known, He gave us life.
Though He suffered and died on the cross, God raised Him to life again. In the same way, we are raised to life everlasting if we accept His loving sacrifice and become a follower of Jesus. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
There is nothing you can do to earn God’s love and there’s nothing you can do to keep Him from loving you. He died for all mankind while we were still in our sin. No sin is too terrible for Him to forgive. I pray that His love will speak loudly to your heart. You are not forgotten and never forsaken. God loves you.
