These daily posts (and their author) are back from three weeks of rest and refreshing. With just two weeks left until Christmas, it feels like a good time to turn our attention each day to one of the magnificent promises of our Saviour’s arrival.
Daily Readings: Psalm 27 and Isaiah 9:1-7
In Isaiah’s day, and having warned His people for generations, God raised up the Assyrians to be instruments of judgment on His utterly unrepentant people. Sweeping down out of the north, these powerful warriors brought great darkness on the land of Israel, starting with the northernmost province of Galilee. In chapter 9, Isaiah foresaw that God’s saving and redeeming work would somehow begin in that very same province. There in Galilee, in the land of deep darkness, where people walked in deep spiritual darkness, a great Light would arise. This light, Isaiah prophesied, would be a person. A child would be born and would grow up to live out the light of God, because this child would be the Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace, all wrapped up in a person – the Light of the World.
With hindsight we know that, by the will and life-conceiving power of the Everlasting Father, Jesus was born as the Mighty God incarnate! He ministered as the Prince of Peace (starting in Galilee and expanding from there). The Holy Spirit (the Wonderful Counsellor) was poured into Jesus and empowered Him to live a perfect life, die a sinless death, and rise from the tomb for our salvation.
The good news for today is that the same Jesus, the same Light of the World, still draws near to our places of deep darkness (whether in our own lives or the lives of those we love). Because of His perfect and unfailing love, Jesus is drawn to darkness so that He can shine His light there. He comes to give us counsel. He comes to empower us to overcome. He comes to “Father us” with His compassionate companionship in our darkness, and He comes to breathe into us His peace that passes understanding. May this be so for each of us today.
Jesus my Lord, You are the Light of my world. Shine Your light into all my darkness today. Shine Your light through me into the darkness around me. Let Your Kingdom of peace and light be established in me and through me today. Amen.
Dave's Diary 