Foothold

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

-John 1:5

The last few days two pieces of scripture have been lingering on my mind and I think it’s because they’re both brilliantly obvious, and yet sometimes seemingly impossible.  First is:

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

-Philippians 4:6-7

The problem here, I believe, is that we sometimes forget the power of God….Let me clarify that….

Immaculate conception…yep

Water to wine…no problem

Walks on water…absolutely

Dies on cross comes back three days later…child’s play

I’m going through a personal crisis(fill in whatever you’d like)…no way God can/would help me with this

When you stand back and really think about it, it’s almost insulting NOT to look to God for help.  Let’s face it, I just could have gone old school (Testament) with things like creation or parting off sea’s to show God’s power but everything that Christ did wasn’t about showing how great He is, it was about showing how much He loves us. Our problem is that we sometimes forget to “walk by faith,not by sight” and we end up viewing God in our own image instead of us in His. We have to remember that there isn’t anything that we can say or do that God doesn’t already know, and that He will always forgive us.  His love is that great.  The other piece of scripture is:

26 “In your anger do not sin” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

-Ephesians 4:26-27

Boom. I mean that last line…. “do not give the devil a foothold”. That is powerful.  Powerful, because we do. Think about it.  It really doesn’t take much for life to start getting out of hand, and instead of praying on it we get mad.  We lose focus.  Instead of hands folded in prayer, they’re pointed in anger and blame.  Our eyes no longer fixed on Him, are obsessed on the world around us.  It doesn’t take long for our hearts and minds to be filled with words like anger, rage, jealousy, hurt, suspicion, and revenge.  All from simply giving the devil a foothold.  And depending on what you’re going through it can take a few days or a single moment for it to happen.  But it’s at those moments.  In those dark times, that we have to look to Him.  We have to remember who we’re supposed to be, and who is on our side.  Always on our side.  His love is greater than our hurt.  I’ve spent the last few years scratching John 1:5 in the underground structures I work in.  I do it trying to both, be clever because the work I do literally keeps the lights on, and also I hope anyone who sees it will look it up and maybe decide to read some more.  So as I was leaving my mark today I suddenly saw the connection.  No darkness can overcome the light we all have inside of us.  The only thing that keeps words like love, peace, patience, hope, trust, and joy from our hearts and mind is ourselves.

Always seek joy, God bless