Hosanna Restoration Church

Do you drive differently when the law is present? I know I do. Recently the Lord brought this to light as I drove down the street with the police right behind me. I found myself concentrating more on things that I normally do anyway like using my turn signal. I actually stopped twice at the stop sign, just to make sure I stopped. I kept looking at my speed to make sure it was right. Even though I normally do those things there was a difference in the way I concentrated on it. Why? Because the law was present, and if I did something wrong it could cost me!

In the midst of this the Lord began to bring some things to light. Just as we should always obey the law because it is the law and not just because someone is there to enforce it, we should also walk in the Light of Gods word at all times. I know people who like to live right at the edge of the law. They know how many miles per hour they can go over the speed limit and still be okay, or least they think they will be. Even if they were to see a patrolman, they might just keep cruising at the higher speed. I have also known people who resent authority, and so when the police were near, rather than showing respect they might yell bad things at them. The same is true in people’s spiritual lives. We may act the way we know the Lord wants when it is convenient, but do what ever we want at other times whether it is what the Word of God says or not.

As all of this was running through my mind, I said to the Lord, “I don’t want to live near the edge where I can slip so easily into the wrong things.” I asked Him to keep me in the center of the circle of His will. When I did this He spoke to me about walking in the light.

His Word tells us that if we will walk in the light, we will not be stumbling around in darkness. The sad truth is that sometimes we prefer the darkness, even though God tells us that the things done in darkness will be revealed because God’s light shines in the darkness. We are silly to think that He misses anything. But remember, He does not shine His light because He wants to catch us and punish us. He shines His light so that we can see the way we should walk. Christ inside of us tells us that when we know what is right but do not do it we are sinning. With Christ in us sin is not natural. We have no peace when we are sinning. God wants us to live in peace and so the light shines so that we will quit stumbling.

If we walk in the Light, we live with a God consciousness. When are stumbling in darkness we live with a sin consciousness. Mostly we are trying to rationalize what we are doing so we do not have to call it sin, but the truth within us does not let that ride for long. When we finally yield to the truth it sets us free. We are inclined to say that everyone stumbles, but if we walk in the light we do not have to.