In our last study, we asked the question, Why are we so afraid of the dark? We have nothing to fear from the darkness, for it is truly powerless. It changes nothing.
However, when LIGHT is absent, the Prince of Darkness does have one small, yet effective, tool—the power to make us believe a lie. Deceit.
Where there’s NO light—or in the eyes of the willfully blind—deceit rules because truth is concealed. Darkness threatens. Darkness frightens. Darkness LIES. Darkness exalts itself and says: I’m in charge now. Everything you thought was real in the light, has changed in the dark. You’ve been lied to. God is NOT who He says He is. Your hope is gone, your sight is useless, and that’s the real truth of it.
But darkness is a LIAR.
It cannot inform—the power to deceive is all it has. It cannot tell the truth—it cannot change the truth—it cannot eliminate TRUTH. It can only hide TRUTH. In fact, its “power” isn’t even real, for if darkness has the “power” to deceive at all, it’s only because we allow it. In our darkest, most hopeless moment, gloom and sadness whisper, You’ve sinned—no use to pray. We surround ourselves with invisible bars, and we tell ourselves that there’s no way out. Bam. We have done the enemy’s work for him.
“Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.” (Micah 7:8 KJV)
Everything changes when Jesus steps into the darkness and declares, I AM THE DOOR! I’m not only lighting your way—I AM THE WAY! The darkness cannot keep you from ME! FOLLOW the LIGHT.
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 NIV) Continual LIGHT—continual fellowship, continual cleansing, and continual power over sin. (1 John 1:7)
These days, technology is advancing faster than our eyes can adjust. Fallacies are presented as facts—deceit is disguised as truth, and if you stare at darkness long enough, you’ll believe ANYTHING. Add that to the fact that the Prince of Darkness is clever—he can counterfeit even truth and light. “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14)
It’s a fact: the longer a person stays in absolute darkness, the more likely their mind will malfunction and “see” what isn’t there. Senses become disoriented in the dark—perception is distorted, and truth is no longer discernible. Sin becomes invisible—not because it doesn’t exist, but because its hideousness is concealed. The worst of it, then, is that hope is destroyed, because the darkness is powerless to restore it.
What can we do? First, we cannot allow ourselves to be fooled. Not now, not today. In these days of AI, when the margins of truth are blurred and delusion poses as enlightenment, we would be better off not even looking at what we know is dark. Not even to glance at it, because evil lurks in the dark. As Paul advised, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in (the DARK).” (Ephesians 5:11-12 KJV)
“So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the (truly powerful) armor of light.” (Romans 13:12 ESV)
Second, be a source of light in a dark world. Keep the LIGHT on! Light reveals, illuminates, explains, and protects. My husband used to say, “Light is the best lock.” Leaving a floodlight ON can be a powerful defense against those who “love darkness rather than light, because their deeds (are) evil.” (John 3:19 NKJ) Be not just a flicker, but a floodlight of God’s love, goodness, and truth.
“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5 ESV)
We don’t want to be deceived. Not now—not ever. We must keep our eyes fixed on what we KNOW is TRUTH. Unchanging truth. Saving truth. The WORD of truth. Call us narrow-minded or brainwashed—it doesn’t matter. It’s far better to walk in the LIGHT—even to be blinded by the LIGHT—than to grow gradually sightless and increasingly oblivious in the dark.
It’s better to live in the glaring lamp of God’s righteousness—where our faults, guilt, and wounds can be clearly seen and held up to the healing LIGHT of God’s forgiveness. It’s better to hold fast to God’s Word, which remains a faithful “lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105 KJV)
In life, every day, we are surrounded by things we cannot understand, and at times we may feel as if we’re stumbling alone in the dark. But even when we don’t see the WHY, we can know the WHO that still controls it all. If God, in the beginning, could create light from nothing—with nothing but His WORD—then He can still create peace out of our chaos, comfort out of our grief, health out of our sickness, relief out of our pain, provision out of thin air—LIGHT out of our darkness.
Only through the Light of the World has God “qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:12-13 NAS)
“You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14 NIV) … SHINE!
(Part 2 of 2)
