Closer Than You Think
When something terrible happens and the world makes zero sense…
The Lord is still close.
Throughout Scripture, we see examples of this: God fights for the Israelites and rescues them from the Egyptians (Exodus 14:13-14). Joshua defeats powerful nations because God fights for him (Joshua 23:10). The Israelites are protected by God as they rebuild Jerusalem’s walls (Nehemiah 4:20).
In Isaiah 54, God reminds the Israelites that He sees their pain, and He has compassion on their circumstances. At the time, the Israelites were in exile. But God promises that their suffering won’t last forever.
God does not abandon His people. Even when they endure intense hardship, God still ultimately shows up, and when they cry out to Him, He fights for them.
And the same God who fought for Israel fights for each of us. This doesn’t mean you won’t face hard things. But even when your mind races and your heart doubts, God is near. He offers you a peace that cannot fully be explained.
Right now, take a few moments to name anything that is crushing your spirit. Then, give yourself permission to sit in God’s presence for a few moments. Give Him all your concerns, and ask Him to show you how He has protected and provided for you.
Let There Be Light
The word “light” appears hundreds of times in the Bible. It first appears just three verses into the first book, Genesis, during the Creation story:
“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.”
Genesis 1:3-4 NIV
Later, when the prophet Isaiah foretold Jesus’ coming, he framed the Messiah as a “great light” that would dawn on those who were “walking in darkness” (Isaiah 9:2). Jesus fulfilled the prophecy in John 8:12 when He declared, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Darkness cannot exist where there is light. Genesis 1 says that God “separated” the light from the darkness that covered a formless, empty earth. The two things cannot coexist. The same is true of sin and perfection. The world fell into darkness when sin entered it.
But the world wasn’t completely consumed by ...