Are You a Child of Darkness?

Throughout scriptures believers are called children of light

• Ephesians 5:8-10 encourages believers, who were once darkness but are now light in the Lord, to walk as children of light, bearing the fruit of goodness, righteousness, and truth, and discerning what is pleasing to the Lord.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:5 states that believers are all children of light and of the day, not of the night or darkness.
• John 12:36 advises believing in the light while it is present to become sons of light.
• Matthew 5:14-16 describes believers as the light of the world, whose good works should shine before others to bring glory to God.
• 1 John 1:7 teaches that walking in the light, as God is in the light, leads to fellowship and cleansing from sin through Jesus’ blood.
• Philippians 2:15 encourages believers to be blameless children of God, shining as lights in a crooked generation.
• 1 Peter 2:9 identifies believers as a chosen race called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light.
• John 8:12 records Jesus declaring himself as the light of the world, promising that those who follow him will have the light of life and not walk in darkness.

Are you a child of darkness?

But let me ask you, are you also a child of darkness? I don’t mean in the sense of being a child of/follower of Satan or living wickedly. What I mean is, can you still walk with God and trust him even when things don’t look so good, even when it seems there is only darkness all around you? Face it, walking spiritually and following Christ’s teachings doesn’t make you exempt from life. Even as believers we still…

• Have to pay the bills.
• Get laid off our jobs.
• Get sick.
• Have to raise children that somedays seem determined to live contrary to everything we have taught them.
• Have to live in a world seemingly gone mad with lawlessness and ungodliness.
• ….And the list goes on.

David wrote in his well-known 23^rd Psalm that “Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” David should know for he led a very tumultuous life. When he left that field as a shepherd he stepped into one conflict and battle after another. I wonder if he ever thought about returning to that simple life as a shepherd. There certainly is no indication in scriptures that he had any regrets for his choice as he followed God’s lead. In fact, if anything, his life boldly declared that the same God who was with him as a shepherd, the same God who helped him kill a lion and a bear with his bare hands, was the same God when facing Goliath and all the many enemies he faced in his life. 1 Samuel 17:34-36

God of the mountain is also God of the valley

God of the mountain is also God of the valley as the old song declares. It is just human nature, I suppose, to desire the mountain top where we can just look down on our problems and look down on the valley of the shadow of death we just walked through. But have you ever thought about the valley being the fertile place where things grow? It’s true! All those minerals and good soil needed to grow things washes down that mountain and nourishes the soil in the valley. It is the same with our spiritual walk. The place we grow is when we are in life’s valleys, those challenging times in our lives that sometimes seem they will tear us apart. Those mountaintop experiences should be when we ponder and remember what God just brought us through.

While darkness often symbolizes evil in the Bible, scriptures also portray it positively as a time for God’s guiding light to shine, a place where wisdom grows, or a backdrop for His glory, with verses like these showing darkness as a necessary context for divine presence and hope, not just absence.

• Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Guidance in unseen paths).
• John 1:5: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Light’s persistence).
• Psalm 139:11-12: “Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you” (God’s omnipresence).
• Habakkuk 3:4: “His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power” (Veiled divine power).

Darkness can be a place for wisdom and transformation if we allow ourselves to learn what it teaches rather than focus on the hard time we are going through.

• Job 12:22: “He uncovers the deeps out of darkness and brings deep darkness to light” (Revealing hidden truths).
• Ecclesiastes 2:13: “I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness” (Wisdom’s value in contrast).
• Isaiah 42:16: “And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths they have not known I will guide them; I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into smooth” (God’s transformative path).

And ultimately, we need not fear the darkness for it has been overcome by Christ.

• John 8:12: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jesus as ultimate light).
• Ephesians 5:8: “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Transformation from darkness to light).

Life can be challenging to say the least. Very few of us go through life without some challenges. Life can be full of storms and difficulties that seem like armies coming against us. Some days it is all we can do to raise our head and get out of bed.  But ultimately God is building us into warriors who can walk and fight this fight of faith whether it is in the darkness or the light. Whatever you go through in this life know you are more powerful than you think. You do have the power to deal with whatever circumstances life has dealt to you. You are more than just a mist helplessly blown about. You are more than a cosmic punching bag. You are as strong in the dark as you are in the light if you rely on God’s strength rather than your own.

• Exodus 14:14 (NIV): “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
• Deuteronomy 3:22 (NIV): “Do not be afraid of them; the LORD your God himself will fight for you.”
• Psalm 46:1-2 (NIV): “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way…”
• 2 Chronicles 20:17 (ESV): “You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf…”
• Isaiah 42:13 (NKJV): “The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies.”
• Philippians 4:13 (ESV): “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Applies to enduring any circumstance)
• Psalm 18:39 (NKJV): “For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.”

Life is full of storms and sometimes he rebukes the storm and sometimes he just holds us as we go through the storm. That does not necessarily mean he will change the diagnosis the doctor just gave you. He can and it could happen but even if he doesn’t we can have confidence that he will command the storm of fear and the out-of-control imagination in us and be the ‘peace that passes all understanding’ (Philippians 4:7). That is what God did for me when I went through cancer. He gave me such a peace that was absolutely supernatural, beyond anything I could possibly muster up. He taught me to take it day by day and no ‘what ifs’. I had bad days and good days during cancer, but without a doubt, he was with me.

You train in the light so that you are ready when the dark times come.

Don’t waste the times when things are going well in life. Don’t take life for granted. You don’t walk around in fear waiting for the next bullet in life to kill you but you should live on a certain level of awareness because as 1 Peter 5:8, warns believers to “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” But what does Luke 10:19 say? “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

How do you walk in the darkness when it comes? Rather than giving into panic and fear you transform your point of view to something that is equal to or greater than what you are facing. By doing so the storm cannot harm you no matter how bad it gets. Yes, it may even kill your physical body but even that prospect should not change your faith and your focus. This is true power when you cannot be shaken even if the worst thing happens. You don’t give in. You fight any way you can. When the storm comes you become the storm! We absorb the storm and let it pass through us. We don’t let it absorb us. This is how we absorb the storm and become the storm, this is what faith is all about, focusing on something above us and more powerful than us that lives in us and can not only stand up to the storm but can absorb it. The storm can pass right through us. Fear should be your slave, not your master.

 I believe we so miss the possibilities and strength God wants us to have and the person he wants us to become by focusing in only on our comfort and needs. God desires so much to show us how strong we really are in Him. We fall so far below what he means for us to be. It is human nature to want to just live in constant comfort and ease but that just isn’t realistic is it? And how do we get through the hard times by being a child of the light and of the darkness.

In conclusion, I offer this poem I wrote. As the poem says, keep in mind that darkness or light is all the same to God and that he is with us no matter what we are going through!

Even the darkness is not dark to you,

You whose name is righteous and true.

Darkness can be defeated by the smallest light,

For when the daylight comes, gone is the night.

It was you who spoke into a world of darkness, “Let there be light!”

When you did so you spoke of yourself, all that is good, all that is right.

When you spoke you spoke more into existence than the sun and the moon,

You were rolling out the carpet of your coming soon.

Though you gave the world light people still chose to use it for evil,

Yet in your mercy you still came with hope for all people.

You came as a babe for a mother to embrace,

Yet it was you who embraced the whole human race.

And then to make sure darkness never would rule,

You gave your life on a cross, death’s tool,

Yet you made it a gateway into darkness’ realm,

You defeated death, hell and the grave, it’s power overwhelmed.

Darkness is not dark to you because you are light,

You are all that is right, you defeated the night.

---

Thanks for reading! Please share with your friends and social media. You may also ask questions and comment below. And be sure to sign up for notifications.

---

Raven has many resources on the web! To find out more CLICK HERE.