About standing tall and upright when darkness falls…
Isaiah 26:10 Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn
righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard
not the majesty of the Lord. 11 O Lord, your hand is lifted high, but they do
not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame; let the
fire reserved for your enemies consume them. (NIV)
This verse from the Old Testament rings a chord in many hearts. We want to
get even when darkness falls upon us. We want the wrongs that have been done to
us to be made right. We want the hurt we feel made right by making others pay.
When darkness comes into our life, when adversity takes its toll upon us, we
want the score to be evened up. Christians, as much as we love the Old
Testament, must understand we are under a new kind of thinking from Christ. From
the teachings of Jesus, we are not called to want an even score in life. From
the teachings of Jesus, we are to want total victory. However, in our worldly
thinking, we think total victory is the total death of our enemy. In the
teaching of Jesus, we see total victory is not the total death of our enemy, but
the total resurrection, the total rebuilding, the total renewing, the total
conversion of our enemy. From the teachings of Jesus, the wicked are shown grace
in your life so you can reach out to them and love them. From the teachings of
Jesus, the dark forces in your life are to be used to give you a chance to bring
the light of God and the light of God’s love into places where His love has
never been.
