O Word of Life, You proclaimed Yourself to be the “God of Light.” You are a light that is good, pure, true, holy and reliable. The darkness that Your light overcomes represents what is sinful and evil. Because You are holy and true, You alone can guide me out of the darkness of sin. Your light exposes whatever exists, whether good or bad. In the dark it is hard to separate good from evil, but in Your light I am able to clearly distinguish between the two. Just as darkness cannot exist when light shines on it … sin cannot exist in Your presence. If I want a deep and meaningful relationship with You, I must put away sin and everything in my life that distracts my attention from You. To claim that I belong to You, I must abandon living for myself and it’s fleshly desires or I will become a hypocrite. I can never hide who I am from You and I know I will be judged righteously. Therefore, if I sin, I must confess it, in order to be restored.
I want to understand how Your blood purifies me from the effects of sin. In the Old Testament, the Israelites symbolically transferred their sins onto an animal which would be sacrificed to God. The animal died in their place to pay for the sins of the people and allowed them to continue living with God’s favor. The sacrifice had to be repeated annually. Your Father graciously forgave them because of their faith in Him and because they willingly obeyed His command to make the sacrifice. However, permanent cleansing from sin came only when You, the Lamb of God, came to take away the sin of the world. Sin, by its nature, leads to death. You did not die for Your own sins but, instead, took upon Yourself the punishment due for all the sins of the world. When I give my life to You, I’m identifying myself with You and, consequently, Your death becomes mine.
As a Believer, my self-worth is based on Your love for me and the calling for me to become Your child. As I live each day, I want to become more like You. Knowing that You love me should motivate me to purge sin from my life. To purify myself I must make decisions to live upright and avoid the occasions of sin. I have areas of my life where temptations are strong and habits are hard to escape. My weaknesses give the Devil a foothold from which he can draw me away from Your love. True Believers do not make it a practice of sinning or acting indifferently to Your Laws. Being “Born Again” is more than a fresh start … it is the receipt of a new family name based on Your act of love. I must start thinking and acting differently. In the same way that You demonstrated Your love for me, I want to do the same for others. Since You are my Light, Lamb and Love, I want to be those things to others. And it’s in Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN!!
John 8:12 (Light) I am the Light of the world; John 1:29 (Lamb) Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; I John 4:8 (Love) God is love.