Let the Light break in!
Then your light will break forth like the dawn!
Isaiah 61:8
On a glorious autumn day on Molesey Heath, it is easy to forget that this world is ruled by the Prince of Darkness. Not so easy when I turn on the news.
Gaza.
Ukraine.
Climate catastrophe.
Or when I hear that my friend’s daughter is suicidal. Or that someone I dearly love is in pain.
Isaiah says, “Cry aloud, do not hold back!”
This kind of prayer isn’t passively hopeless in the face of the darkness. Isaiah calls us to shatter chains of wickedness, to feed the physically and spiritually hungry and to open the door to the physically and spiritually homeless.
Then, your light will break forth like the dawn.
Walking down my road, I pass a six-foot Grim Reaper topped with a gruesome skull and garbed in blood-stained robes, stood up outside Number 4. Tonight is Halloween, which some say caricatures evil to diminish it but at Vauxhall station on Saturday night, it looked more like a drugged-up celebration of misrule by teenagers lost in the dark. For us who know Jesus, Halloween is a holy night, The Holy Ones Evening, when we celebrate that those made holy in Christ will never die. Great joy here for us who mourn - the story ends in glory!
The Grim Reaper is vanquished. The light has broken in and the darkness will not overcome it. Because of the tender mercy of our God, the rising sun has come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness (Luke 1:79).
And always, when God shines on us, it is so that we would reflect his glory and shine with him. I heard this week that Christians on the frontline in Ukraine have led 60,000 people to Jesus.
Christians do not run from the dark, but trust in God’s great love that as we step into it with his love and mercy, we will bring his presence there.
Whatever darkness you face, may the light and love of God break in.
With my love,
Kate
PS This is the last shout out for the Glory conference next Saturday. I believe that there will be profound life-changing encounters with God.
