Exposure to the Elements
Exposure to the Elements
John 3:16-20
16-18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
19-21"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."
Take it Deeper
Have you ever tried to help someone and seemed to make it worse? Only to have them come back with “Look, you made it worse”? Sometimes, that’s how we react to God. He comes in to save the day, and things look worse not better. When it comes down to it, when have God’s plans ever made much sense to us? God is infinite, unimaginably huge, and incredibly complex. He’s so big that we can’t understand why He chooses to do things the way He does. In fact, God set up a law back when he created the world. You may have heard of it, it’s called “The law of sowing and reaping.” For everything we sow, there are consequences (reaping) both good and bad. Usually, when we sow to please ourselves, we reap death, judgment, and pain (Galatians 6:8) but always, there are consequences.
What does that mean in this context? Well, most often, cry out to God, our loving father, when things are bad, but when He steps in and doesn’t do exactly what we asked or expected, we point our finger at Him. God is the one who should be pointing fingers. He made us, and we in our sin, turned our backs on him. In fact, V.16 says “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” Notice it doesn’t say “…a whole lasting life free from consequences.”
Here comes the worst of it. We are in a crisis. Everyone on earth is dealing with it, though few recognize it. The crisis is this: sin still exists. We still do what we want, still blame God for our hurts, but don’t praise Him for our successes. God gave Jesus to us to shine a light on the corrupt plan of sin: world domination. The problem is, most of us still prefer the vittles that sin offers, over the choice food that God provides. And the worst of it, yes it gets worse, is that we chose to do it because we feared that God would expose us painfully. But the reality is, when we expose our sins to God, who already knew them, its actually liberating. If there are areas in your life that are tainted by darkness, expose them to the light. It may hurt, especially if you have to “Out” yourself to someone you love because you are hiding something from them, but by doing that, God then removes the condemnation and the fear and sets us free!
Prayer
Jesus, I love you. I know that you died to bring light to me. I accept you and your light and pray that you would shine it on my life. Examine me in every area, show me the dirty, dank, nasty parts of my life that you want to remove and clean. I promise to run to the light with my problems instead of running away. Please also give me the courage to go through the consequences of my actions. If you can abate or remove them altogether, I pray that you would do so, if not, I realize that it is just a small matter compared to the eternity that awaits me in judgment. Thank you for your forgiveness, I pray that you would help me to walk in the light in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Questions to grow deeper still
• What are 3 areas of your life that need to be exposed to light?
• Can you think of why you would run away from the light?
• Why don’t you write down areas in your life that you want God to shine his Light onto?
John 3:16-20
16-18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
19-21"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."
Take it Deeper
Have you ever tried to help someone and seemed to make it worse? Only to have them come back with “Look, you made it worse”? Sometimes, that’s how we react to God. He comes in to save the day, and things look worse not better. When it comes down to it, when have God’s plans ever made much sense to us? God is infinite, unimaginably huge, and incredibly complex. He’s so big that we can’t understand why He chooses to do things the way He does. In fact, God set up a law back when he created the world. You may have heard of it, it’s called “The law of sowing and reaping.” For everything we sow, there are consequences (reaping) both good and bad. Usually, when we sow to please ourselves, we reap death, judgment, and pain (Galatians 6:8) but always, there are consequences.
What does that mean in this context? Well, most often, cry out to God, our loving father, when things are bad, but when He steps in and doesn’t do exactly what we asked or expected, we point our finger at Him. God is the one who should be pointing fingers. He made us, and we in our sin, turned our backs on him. In fact, V.16 says “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” Notice it doesn’t say “…a whole lasting life free from consequences.”
Here comes the worst of it. We are in a crisis. Everyone on earth is dealing with it, though few recognize it. The crisis is this: sin still exists. We still do what we want, still blame God for our hurts, but don’t praise Him for our successes. God gave Jesus to us to shine a light on the corrupt plan of sin: world domination. The problem is, most of us still prefer the vittles that sin offers, over the choice food that God provides. And the worst of it, yes it gets worse, is that we chose to do it because we feared that God would expose us painfully. But the reality is, when we expose our sins to God, who already knew them, its actually liberating. If there are areas in your life that are tainted by darkness, expose them to the light. It may hurt, especially if you have to “Out” yourself to someone you love because you are hiding something from them, but by doing that, God then removes the condemnation and the fear and sets us free!
Prayer
Jesus, I love you. I know that you died to bring light to me. I accept you and your light and pray that you would shine it on my life. Examine me in every area, show me the dirty, dank, nasty parts of my life that you want to remove and clean. I promise to run to the light with my problems instead of running away. Please also give me the courage to go through the consequences of my actions. If you can abate or remove them altogether, I pray that you would do so, if not, I realize that it is just a small matter compared to the eternity that awaits me in judgment. Thank you for your forgiveness, I pray that you would help me to walk in the light in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Questions to grow deeper still
• What are 3 areas of your life that need to be exposed to light?
• Can you think of why you would run away from the light?
• Why don’t you write down areas in your life that you want God to shine his Light onto?
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