TUESDAY 21st
1 John 1
NIV (vv5-7) ‘This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.’
ESV (vv5-7) ‘This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.’
Today is what we know as the shortest day, from tomorrow we should get a little extra light until we build up to the middle of June next year for the longest day. It’s strange that we do not notice the difference immediately, tomorrow will pass with us not even noticing the fraction of extra bit of daylight, and yet by the time we get to June we will bask in the extra hours of sunshine and the warmth it brings—hopefully!
What happens is that each fraction builds up more each day till we get to the longest day, but each fraction counts, each fraction is important. I want to remind us today that as we progress in our daily walk with God, it is a little like us moving further away from the darkness and closer to the light. Each day as we live for him, and as we seek to grow and mature, it is as if little by little we are becoming more Christlike as we allow his grace to change us and to transform us.
We used to sing a song,
From glory to glory He’s changing me,
changing me, changing me;
His likeness and image to perfect in me,
The love of God shown to the world.
For He’s changing, changing me,
From earthly things to the heavenly,
His likeness and image to perfect in me,
The love of God shown to the world.
I wonder as we look back over this last year, do we see and feel a change in our lives as God has been working in our hearts, do we feel that we have become more Christlike, can we truly say that he has continually been changing us and transforming us more to the image of his Son? The end of a year is a good time to take stock and the new year is an opportunity to seek to improve, to be more like what He wants us to be.
Maybe its possible that you are still drawn back towards the darkness, you want to draw closer to God, you want to allow his light to shine more brightly through your life but something of the old desires, the old nature keeps dragging you back or holding you back, then make today the day when you draw a line in the sand and say ‘no more’, decide that as the days get lighter so I want also to allow more of the light of life to shine in my life, and as you make that decision ask God by the power of his Holy Spirit to help you, to strengthen you, to be able to say no to the ways of the flesh and yes to the ways of the Spirit.