Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness – August 10, 2019

[God the Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:13,14

Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness

When I was about nine years old, I almost drowned. I was not an inexperienced swimmer. The problem was, I was over-confident in my experience and ignorant of my limitations. As I was doing laps, my brain said, “Keep going!” But my body said, “I’m done.” As I sank into the murky waters, a hand grabbed for me, and then an arm embraced me and pulled me safely to the pool’s edge. My father had risked his life to rescue me.

Over-confidence in our abilities and ignorance of our limitations is a universal problem. We think we can navigate life just fine on our own. But it doesn’t matter how good we are. It doesn’t matter if we are better than others. We are drowning in a cesspool of sin. And as if nothing is wrong, our fallen nature says, “Keep going!”

Not until God hits us with the realization of the hopelessness of our efforts does our law-stricken heart scream, “I’m done for!”

God has heard our cry for help. Seeing us sinking down, Christ climbed down from his throne in heaven and jumped into this sin-filled world in order to save us. To do so, he had to more than risk his life. He gave his life in exchange for ours. He suffered the death we deserved so that we might live. But he does even more than that. Through baptism, God washes the moral filth from us and dresses us in the clean robe of Jesus’ sinless virtue. In him, you and I have complete deliverance.

Even so, sometimes we still feel that we are swimming through dark times. The more we focus on that darkness, the more we drown in our doubts and fears. But when we focus on Jesus, the Light of the world, and trust his saving power, he gives us new life. Praise the one who breaks the darkness!

Prayer:
Dear Jesus, thank you for delivering me from the hopelessness and despair of this dark world. Your love and forgiveness fill me with joy. Enable me to live as a child of light. Amen.