Leviticus 2–3; John 21; Proverbs 18; Colossians 1
Michael Somers brought up a good point in yesterday’s post, titled Taking Thoughts Captive. He said, “Thoughts are curious things. They tend to breed more of themselves. If we think on things that are dark, such thoughts beget more darkness.” It is true. What we focus on expands. Unfortunately, we all, at some point in our lives, find ourselves lost, groping in the darkness, longing for the light. Many of the Psalms express this angst. We can hear the psalmists’ deep cries of distress and desperation that echo in the dark and empty recesses of our own hearts. We also hear them pining for relief. What the psalmists get right in these dark nights of the soul, is the focus point of their plea and petition. They look only to God.
Everything that I know about God says that he cannot live in my dark place. Clearly, if my heart is in darkness, God wants nothing to do with it. His very being will not allow it. This creates an insurmountable challenge for me. Fortunately, God wants more than anything to reconcile my heart to him. He did, after all, create me. He is my Father. He loves me far beyond the love that I can comprehend. Just one example comes from Romans 8:38-39 which reminds us that there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from His love.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Do you hear what I hear in those wonderful words? They say that nothing in our present circumstances, no people, no higher (or lower) powers, NOTHING can touch his love for us. How can this be true? How does God overlook the darkness upon which I dwell? The difference maker is Jesus Christ. Today we read about the great pleasure that God has in his son. Because of Jesus’ perfection, he has no darkness (1 John 1:5), which is why in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Colossians 1:19). You know the rest of the story, right? His perfection, his light and his fullness were laid out on the altar, sacrificed, given for me, so that God sees only light, not darkness. In fact, when we live with Jesus, our hearts emit such a pleasing aroma that he has brings us into his own presence, and we are holy and blameless as we stand before him without a single fault (Colossians 1:22 NLT). Do you know what that means? It means that the fullness of God is pleased to dwell within our hearts. Now, that is something worth thinking about!
Thank you for your Son. For his complete sacrifice that allows us to live in your fullness. Fill our thoughts today with your goodness. As king David does in Psalm 27, I pray that we may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of our lives, to gaze upon Your beauty, our Lord and to inquire in Your temple.