In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness”, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
(2 Corinthians 4:4-6)
On Sunday 14 May Tim began a new series looking at the account of Josiah’s life which we can read in 2 Kings with the New Testament Scripture above. This really spoke to me as I had been meditating recently upon the beginning of John’s Gospel in particular the following verses:
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
(John 1:4-5)
I had been lying in bed in the early hours of the morning unable to sleep. Between 4.30 and 5.00 am I noticed how the light began to flood into the room. The thing is we have blackout blinds fitted to our windows behind the curtains as there is a streetlight at the end of our drive which lights our room up without them. The blackout blinds keep out the light of the streetlight but as the sun comes up on bright spring mornings they cannot keep the sunlight out.
Of late I have resorted to wearing an eye cover sleep mask provided on a recent long haul flight to block out the light of the sun and allow me to gain an extra hour or two sleep. The blackout blind does not overcome the sunlight as the light pours in around the edges where the blind is just 2 cm away from the frame and on a bright morning it seems to pour through the curtains despite the lining and fabric.
Just as with the Lord bringing light into the world the blackout blinds like the darkness of the world cannot overcome the light. However, the sleep mask fitting snugly on my face obliterates the light completely allowing me to sleep but … the light is still there! The light is still surrounding me; despite blinds, curtains and mask, I am still bathed in the light, it is just that I am choosing to block it out. As soon as I begin to lift the edge of the sleep mask to remove it the light floods in and I immediately squint at it’s brightness.
So it can be also if we turn from and remove the little patches of unbelief in our hearts. Light and truth can flood in and we can begin to live in more of the blessings that God has for us.
The first steps in this process is to begin to recognise where these patches of unbelief are. How has Satan blinded our minds? It will be different for each of us. Our experiences and the circumstances of life for each of us differs considerably and the way we have interpreted them will differ too. Even amongst siblings growing up together, family difficulties will effect each child differently. There is a saying: The same boiling water that makes potatoes soft makes eggs hard.
The enemy will whisper thoughts to us that lead to unbelief. It’s easy to understand that the enemy will use negative things to sow doubt and unbelief into our thinking, perhaps from experiences that have hurt us or when our prayers have not been answered the way we wanted. But he can also do the same with positive experiences when we believe that a blessing is the result of our hard work, our intellect or skills rather than giving God the glory and thanking Him for His favour, His wisdom or the skills He has given us. When we receive praise for something we have done, it can be so easy to let our broken soulish humanity feed our desire to believe we are responsible for our success etc.
I have talked with many people who read the Word of God but believe that some passages ‘are not for them’. Some may have a twisted understanding of scripture such as ‘cheap’ or ‘hyper’ grace; a wrong belief that “it’s ok to sin because we live in grace”. Others may believe intellectually, in their mind, but somehow don’t receive the truth in their spirit.
A recurrent example of this is folk who understand in their mind that God loves them; they have read it in The Word, they’ve heard it preached, they’ve had it said to them individually and repeatedly by caring brothers and sisters in Christ, they may even have preached to others about it, but they do not feel it in their heart, they don’t ‘know it’ deep in their spirit. Some rejection, lack of love or nurture or perhaps abuse has sown a belief deep within them that they are not or cannot be loved. The experience, or experiences sow a ‘human’ belief deep within them that is then projected into their relationship with God.
Tim suggested that we may all have some unbelief within us. I think he is right. I came across this article ‘Confessions of an Unbelieving Believer’ recently by an American Pastor who seems to have turned his own faith and the faith of his fellowship up to a higher level. If you want to read more follow this link:
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/melwild.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/confessions-of-an-unbelieving-believer/amp/
Tim spoke this week about how Josiah, having heard the word of the Lord (Probably including what we know as Deuteronomy 6:1-15) realised how much of God’s truth had been lost. Covered over by the debris of everything that had gone before, Josiah rediscovered the truth and then took steps to begin to put things right (2 Kings 22:13). He did this both for the nation and his own life. He enquired of the Lord, he made a choice to change and he took action.
Whatever the blinds, curtains and masks of unbelief are in your life you will benefit from recognising them and working with the Lord to remove them. Could you join with me in a prayer today?
Heavenly Father, your word tells us “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (John 12:36)
Help me Father to believe and receive all of the truth you have for me, to truly become a son or daughter of light. Lord I choose to believe; help me in my unbelief.
Lord Jesus, please show me where there are areas of unbelief in me, help me to understand deep in my spirit the real truth and surrender to you any hurt or pain or behaviour where unbelief is rooted for you to come with your truth and bring healing to me in the deep places.
Help me Lord to look above the circumstances and experiences of life that Satan has used to bind me in unbelief and look to you and your Word for the truth of who I really am in you, and know the love, grace and power of you in me, that I may be all that you want me to be. In Jesus’ name Amen.
Andrew White