A Spot of Light

John 8:12 - When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

The other day I was sitting on the couch and enjoying my family's company. It was sunny outside and there were beams of sunlight shinning in on the carpet. It was truly a great day outside. My two oldest boys are generally pretty active and at this moment I noticed my 2 year old running around in circles. He reminded me very much of a little puppy chasing his tail. He was pretty cute. Then I noticed something interesting. He was running around the spot of sunlight that was on the carpet and once in a while running through it, but really just wanting to run around it. He was only running through it because he is 2 and he was losing his balance.

Then something occurred to me as he also reminded me of something else that hit home a little too much. It may even sound familiar to you when I tell you what it is that I was thinking.

We're all just like my son. We run around The Light all the time.

Jesus calls Himself The Light of the world because their is so much darkness in the world. He also tells us in John 15:4-5 that we must remain in Him (in The Light) and He in us in order to accomplish anything for Him. The verses actually go like this in the New International Version:
4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

The truth is, we run around The Light too. We sometimes even run through Him, but we hardly ever remain in Him. We just run and run and do our own thing. What are we accomplishing? Are we trusting Jesus and dwelling in His presence and love? I mean, what are we accomplishing for Him, through Him? What is He accomplishing through us?

Our time with the Lord each day in a deliberate time of devotion is crucial to our remaining in Him and He in us. Reading His Word and talking and listening to Him through prayer is how we learn about Him and how we learn about how He deals with people and what we mean to Him. It's how we learn to trust Him because we are hearing from Him and we are unloading our burdens and our thankfulness on Him.

When we dwell in the Lord we learn that what He really wants is a relationship with us, His people, His beloved creation made in His image. That's all He wants. He doesn't want you to give Him anything except your heart.

Come as you are because His love is unconditional. Remain in The Light and don't just run around Him. The blessings that will come from Him and the fruit that you will bear because of Him will be more than we can even imagine.

- Bry...