Light in the darkness

     A while, I started reading Just Give Me Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz. As I read the first chapter and John chapter 1, I found this heart-stirring reminder of God. This has been brought to my attention multiple times this past week and so here it is my prayerful thoughts in beginning to understand God more richly..

Is the rejection of Jesus and his word simply the "hurt" of the darkness being exposed to the light?

 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it. John 1:5

                                                                                                                   (a- or Understood)

    These past few years as I have more children I have begun to notice a bit more about the world. There are wars, terror, pain, death, persecution, misunderstanding, suicides and the list goes on. I can not even turn on the news due to the violent stories that are on every day reminding me of the cruelty and perversion in the world. It seems to be just getting worse and worse- and We know that the bible discusses such things happening in the world before Jesus comes back.

    My response to this has been disgust, anger, and not understanding why? There are questions of Where is God?, and Why would He let this happen? As my heart has been stirred and the answers in Faith that God knows all and His place in everything I do not always know the answer... Is being reminded of a simple truth about situations. God is and knows why things happen.

    Romans 8:28- All things work together for good to them who loves the Lord. This understanding is not only in the good things but also in the painful - God is working situations for good to ultimately bring glory to His name

    From this year's BSF I have learned that God uses even the hardening of hearts to bring out good. 14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. Exodus 7:14- Pharoah's heart was repeatedly hardened by God due to his refusal to yield to God and thus God's power was shown through the plagues and the Israelites were freed due to this hardening. God's use of not-good situations even to bring out good is a deep mystery for me still but God is God and he will be given glory even the rocks will cry out! 

      On top of these ways God is present and using things for his Glory, I have forgotten a simple truth. God is light. In John 1 we are presented with the simple truths of God- He is the word of God and it was in the beginning, and He is the light. Verse 5 states-His light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it. John 1:5 Darkness is all over the world today, these horrible, cruel, unexplainable things happening all over the world. And what we know about darkness, in the simple sense, is that darkness can be overcome by light. If you are in a dark room then turn on a light- the light pierces the darkness not just covering it but making it no more-. As Anne says in her book after you turn on the light your eyes hurt a bit getting used to the light.  This is God, He is the light of the world, His light shines in the darkness and cannot overcome the light. In this world full of darkness, the hurt- rejection of Jesus and his words, is the outcome of the "hurt" from seeing the light. Those who are the light shining the truth of God in the evil that envelopes the world- those around who see the light don't understand it for they do not have the faith of believing in God, thus are hurt by the light they can't overcome. 

      Though this is not a complete understanding of all of God's ways or His will it has been made known to me to add to the wonderful understanding that God is light and the hurt can be from Him shining in the darkness. Every time a hard or painful situation presents itself I can also remember some pain is the darkness being pierced by the light. Satan is always fighting to cover the light but he will never consume it, the light will consume him and there is pain on this earth sometimes due to the light tearing straight through the darkness. It's all about His purpose.