Coming Out of the Dark

I have a thing about light. I love the light.

The past several years have taken me on a discovery-journey, learning to identify what exactly it is that I am most passionate about. What is my story? What is my life’s message? I actually went through a training/mentoring class that tugged, pulled, pressed and squeezed those things out of me. Come to find out, I really love light. And I hate darkness. Not the darkness of the natural night––no, I’m talking about soul darkness.

I experienced two knock-down, drag-out fights with depression in my past, and those were very dark times for me. I could sense darkness all around me. I couldn’t find the light, even when I searched and clambered for it. I was so desperate to see again––to get out of the haze and the mental chaos––but darkness exhausted all my efforts and I just wanted to curl up and die. The amazing thing was, even though I couldn’t see light emotionally, God helped me resolve to believe it was still there. Even in the darkest night of my soul, God was with me, convincing me that He had never left me. He dropped a flicker of faith into my heart, and that was the spark I needed to get the flame going inside me again.

Through a process over time, God gently led me out of the shadow-places and into an open field of His grace. He set me free from the chokehold of depression that would eventually have killed me!

I experienced God as Light. He IS my light.

Are you tired of the darkness? Do you need more light in your life? Here are the steps God showed me to get there:

1. Silence the negative voices. (Even your own.) Start speaking life, and start surrounding yourself with truth from His Word. Your new best friends are an audio Bible, worship music, uplifting Christian messages/sermons, whatever is pumping the truth of God’s word into your soul.

2. Meditate on the truth. It is one thing to play truth through your earbuds, but it is another thing altogether to grab on to that truth and chew it and digest it. Listen for the words the Holy Spirit will point out to you. Write them down. Repeat them out loud. Burn them in your memory and plant them in your heart.

3. Believe what God tells you. Ask Him how He sees you, what He thinks of you. Don’t shy away from it! Write it down, read it often and choose to believe that you ARE the exact person God says you are. You are NOT darkness. You are light because of what Jesus did for you. You were created to shine, but you might need that little flicker of faith to get your flame going again. Choose to believe!

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

What is keeping you in the dark? What is God saying to you?

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