“Jesus the Bringer of Light”


BIBLE READING: Isaiah 61-64

                Nyctophobia is an extreme fear of night or darkness that can cause intense symptoms of anxiety and depression.             I would venture to say that all of us have at one time had some type of fear of the dark.  Why is that? Why are we afraid of something so elementary as darkness?  It may be because we are so visually driven in that we have a type of confidence in the things that we can see.  Another reason that darkness is so scary is that sometimes darkness encourages our mind to play tricks on us. Our imagination causes us to see things that are not there or hear things that wouldn’t normally alarm us, but the darkness leads us to imagine the worse.  It could even be because of the advice we received as teenagers in “nothing ever good happened in the dark.” Sin is even characterized by darkness in the Bible.  Maybe the dark place that exists is the darkness of our heart. Jeremiah tells us, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17.9) When we begin to think of all the things that our heart is capable of thinking and doing, it is a scary place.  Yet Isaiah has some encouraging words for us, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see…” (Isaiah 60:1-4).  According to the New Testament, Jesus is that Light for us today.  So…Arise Christians, lets not be afraid of the darkness of this world, for Jesus has come to shed His light into our dark hearts.  Let the light of Jesus shine in you and through you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    -MH

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