“But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from sin.” (1 John 1:7)
Because our goal is to make this a season of watching and prayerfully anticipating the coming of the Lord, we have to address all darkness as well as glorying in His light. The celebration of His birth, and more emphatically, of His reign in us, gives us courage to dispell darkness wherever it has prevailed, even if only in one small, forgotten corner of our hearts.
Let’s pray and rejoice, with the striking of the match each evening, that we may reprove every dark place that remains in us, be it as small as a mustard seed. Oh yes, faith is the seed of which the Lord spoke, but seeds of regret, bitterness, fear, dissipation, and unbelief will grow, too, unless they are uprooted. Imagine … if even one of our “besetting sins” were to be choked out, even now, our holidays – all our days – would brighten.
We aren’t afraid of what we see in our hearts, for the debt of our sin is paid and newness of life has come. The Lord knows what remains in us of destruction and dread. We fear God, and we put off the “old man” for the sake of the life of Christ. We name the dark corners and call them what they are – self-pity, unforgiveness, selfishness, greed . . . nothing, nothing that the Lord hasn’t banished before in others.
As we settle into each Advent day or evening, we don’t hide our faults in the gaiety or the rush of the season. We just honestly say, we surrender our darkness and repent of our pride. We will have done with sin, the very sin we know we’ve sheltered, and we will walk in light.
This is walking with God. This is bearing the fruit of light (Ephesians 5:9.) This is going out to meet the Bridegroom, our wicks trimmed, and taking the fullness of His Spirit with us!
Lamp lighter in Brest, Belarus
Yogi555, by permission
Marketplace Monastics 