Have you noticed that enthusiasm wanes over time? Things you were once committed to cease to be so important and you get distracted.
Sadly we see this waning of interest and commitment in families and marriage, with study, careers, business, friendships, causes and so on. The Early Light of interest and engagement wanes and may even die out altogether.
We see this with the Israelites in the Old Testament over and over again. In Judges 2 verses 10-23 we have a summary that goes like this.
The people worshipped idols and abandoned worship of God.
God allowed them to be attacked and oppressed by enemies, so they cried out to God.
God sent judges to rescue them.
After being delivered the people returned to idolatry.
God again let them be attacked, so they called on God. God sent a deliverer, but after that the people returned to idolatry. Over and over again.
The people would be drawn back to the truth (the Light) that God is God and loved them and would protect them, but then they would abandon that truth (that Light) and worship idols. Their commitment to God waned quickly.
God warned His people, before He let them capture the Promised Land, that they would become rich and blessed and their hearts might stray from the Lord.
“When the Lord brings you into the land He swore to your fathers — with splendid cities you did not build, houses full of good things, wells you did not dig, and vineyards you did not plant— when you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the Lord.” Deuteronomy 6:10-12
“Take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.” Deuteronomy 11:16
In the New Testament the Apostle Paul challenged the church at Galatia that they had moved away from the truth he first taught them.
“I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel” Galatians 1:6
“O foolish Galatians! Who bewitched you? … After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh?” Galatians 3:1,3
Our lives are not supposed to be shifting sand, drifting from one thing to another, but are to be established on the rock of truth, holding firm to the light of the gospel and our commitment to God and His truth.
Jesus warned us that if we build our lives on shifting sand our life will be ruined. He told of a man who built his house on sand.
“Rains fell, floods rose, and winds battered the house, and it collapsed with a great crash.” Matthew 7:27
So why do people drift away from what they should be anchored on? Selfishness is probably a key factor. People keep looking for what they think will be best for them, and in pride they think they can work out what that is.
Then human lust for comforts and indulgence prompts us toward things that promise to bless us, but which only destroy us.
On top of that, our enemy, Satan, is actively trying to lure us into the wrong paths and choices, stirring up our pride, lust and selfishness so we move away from God.
“The Spirit clearly states that in later times some will abandon faith to follow deceiving spirits and demonic teachings, lured by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.” 1Timothy 4:1,2
How do we find that First Light? Let me answer by asking what the original Light in our universe was? Those who don’t believe in God think the first light is the evolved world in its pristine condition. So they seek to connect with nature and are keen to protect the natural world, since it is their supposed foundation and only hope.
Christians, however, know that God was in the beginning, and God’s Word was in the beginning, and that God created light as the first expression of our natural world.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
“And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.” Genesis 1:3
The First Light that existed from the beginning is the truth of God as creator and Lord. The light is the light of the Gospel, the Good News, about Jesus, the Son of God, known as ‘The Word of God’, who died to save us from our sins, so we come into relationship with God.
Nothing in this universe is more wonderful or deserves greater commitment than that First Light that will also shine forever. All those other glittering things that distract you, and all your selfish impulses that lure you, and all the lies the enemy tells you can’t change the fact that the First Light still shines as brightly as ever. Stay in the sunshine of God’s truth and be carried into heaven’s glories for ever and ever by that First Light.
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