We are dependent on our eyes. Humans see very well during the daylight hours, but let night fall, and our vision is severely limited.
When a hurricane struck Galveston Island, Texas, several years ago, the streets were cleared quickly, but the power grid remained down for quite some time. Stores and residential complexes brought in massive generators to power their lights, air conditioning, and refrigeration until the electricity could be restored.
At night, driving down Seawall Boulevard, the four-lane thoroughfare fronting the Gulf of Mexico, was eerie. Everything was black, as far as the eye could see, with no residential lights, streetlights, or business signs to mark the roadway all the way to the horizon. Even cars were few and far between. It was a world gone dark, and it twisted what should be into something frightening.
Galveston needed a light shining in the darkness. On the whole of the island a month after the storm, only one resort fifteen miles down the island was as brightly lighted as ever. The island’s Seaside Resort lifted a fist to the desolation left by the storm, and its tractor-trailer rig-size generators cried, “We will not be defeated! We will rise above that which tries to bring us down! We will overcome!”
Seeing the resort’s lights in the distance after miles of absolute darkness imparted a feeling of relief. It gave hope of a safe haven where things would be as they should be, not as the world around said they were.
We’ve all weathered storms in our lives. Some of us are like Galveston, darkened, because our power grid has failed. When the sun goes down, we are surrounded with blackness, and we can’t see any good around us.
We must be like Seaside Resort. It doesn’t matter what comes our way. We leap up with the shining sword of the power of God in our fist, and we shake it at the world, crying in a loud voice, “We will be the beacon in the night! We will show you the way! Come to us all you who feel defeated, and you will find power through the name of Christ!”
Romans 3:23 tells us the storms affect everyone:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
1 Corinthians 16:13 tells us that’s not our fate:
“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”
Hebrews 4:12 shows us the generator that will power our lives:
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Let’s not live in the darkness of despair. Rather, we must plug into Jesus, for in him is where our power is found. We plug in by studying the Word and making it part of our everyday lives.
Jesus trumps the darkness, and through him, we can shine brightly in the night.
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Code: FGO.D.18.15b.vp.esv