Demonstrate an Open and Honest Life
Week 41 Day 1
Pray:
Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
1 John 1:5-11 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
Reflect:
Darkness is the absence of light. When light is low or absent altogether the human eye is unable to perceive color. Everything becomes shades of grey until finally all becomes black. Light is essential to seeing. Even in the darkest night the trees, flowers, and lakes retain the properties that give them “greenness” or “redness” or “blueness,” but in the dark of night their beauty is unrevealed to our eyes. Likewise, dangers are hidden in the dark. One could stumble off a cliff on a dark trail because the eye cannot perceive the break in the trail. Light is essential for beauty and also for safety. God is said to be “light” or “photos” in the Greek. That, of course, is the word from which we get photon. Photons are the packets or particles of light that bounce off objects and then strike our retinas creating images that we can see. God is essential for “seeing” things as they are. In him there is no darkness, there is never a time or circumstance in which he does not clearly see what actually is and even what actually should be. His “light” extends into the past and the future; he sees all time and all events as an eternal “now.” He also “sees” into our hearts. He has perfect clarity on our motives and desires. He sees through our words and our emotions and our attempts to hide from the truth that is inside us. He sees exactly what is real and true about us. This can be terrifying or this can be, and should be, a great relief. We really don’t have to expend the energy to pretend or to hide anymore. God sees everything anyway. He can see you better than you can see yourself. Yet, he has accepted you in Christ Jesus. Therefore, you can rest in his light. We normally prefer to physically rest or sleep in darkness, but for spiritual rest we need light. We need to understand that there is no dark to him. There is no hiding our deeds, our thoughts, or our motives from him. All is laid bare before him and, yet, he does not despise us. He loves us. Rest now, but don’t sleep, in the light. Be honest with who you really are and what is really going on inside of you with God. He sees it…talk to him about it.
Pray:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.