Light and the Friendship of God

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I’m grown up and certainly don’t need to sleep with the light on, but at some point I realized that we are rarely ever faced with absolute darkness. There is generally some light that filters into the darkness with our modern amenities. So when faced with absolute darkness—no light whatsoever—I realized that I don’t like it. Darkness is unsettling; I long for even just a little light.

Darkness isolates us from our surroundings.

Darkness is disorienting. Bad things lurk in the dark. Harm happens, from stubbing your toe to worse things. Darkness also isolates you from what is around you; you can’t see, sense, or understand your surroundings or situation. Do you ever feel like this?

Job describes the effects of darkness:

“He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth
    and makes them wander in a trackless waste.
They grope in the dark without light,
    and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.” (Job 12:24-25)

Lack of understanding—not knowing God and his ways—causes this staggering, wandering, and groping in darkness. Often when we feel lost and are groping for answers, we call up a friend and unload our frustrations. We share how we feel like we are staggering about in our situation. Or maybe we buy the most popular self-help book when we lack understanding, only to end up wandering through its pages, seeking some relief from the confusion we feel.

Only God can give us light.

Instead, we need to realize that the only one who can give us light is God. We need to seek him and the understanding that comes from him, which is found in his word and in a close relationship with him.

Job longs to experience this closeness to God that he once felt. He describes it this way:

“Oh, that I were as in the months of old,
    as in the days when God watched over me,
when his lamp shone upon my head,
    and by his light I walked through darkness,
as I was in my prime,
    when the friendship of God was upon my tent.” (Job 29:2-4)

The friendship of God is the relationship that sheds light in our lives.

Job didn’t realize that, even as he spoke, God was watching over him and keeping him from great sin. He felt alone, but God was still present and his friend. The friendship of God is the relationship that sheds light in our lives. It is this friendship that assures us that God truly does watch over us. The darkness that surrounds us, whether spiritual darkness or confusion, is only overcome by the light from God—the light that is God.

The apostle John wrote about Jesus, proclaiming that “the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9). Jesus is the light who has overcome the darkness of the world and the spiritual darkness in our hearts (John 1:5). He is the one who makes a way for our right relationship and friendship with God so that we know we walk in the light and are always watched over by our heavenly Father, whose lamp shines upon our heads (Job 29:3).

We walk in light as friends of God because we belong to our Savior, the light of the world.

As we listen to to Jesus through the Scriptures, we are given light by the Holy Spirit by which to live our lives, walking in the path that is pleasing to the Lord. Jesus is the one who is light and brings light. By being in Christ, the one who was not overcome by darkness, we can know that we too will never be overcome by darkness. In fact, our future is bright!

Revelation speaks of the purity and brightness of the church, the saints of God:

“Let us rejoice and exult
     and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
     and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
     with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.(Rev. 19:7-8)

If bright garments of holiness are our future, let us now hold fast to the one who grants us light and walk as friends of God because we belong to our Savior, the light of the world (John 8:12).

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This article is adapted from “Light and the Friendship of God” in Beautiful Christian Life’s March 2023 newsletter, “Light and Darkness.”

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• “Let There Be Light”: 6 Things You Need to Know about the Light God Gives You
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