Walk in the Light of the Lord

Do schedules, deadlines, urgencies, and emergencies crowd out your determination to refresh your heart and mind with Scripture? Do you ever need a little more motivation to be in God’s word on a daily basis and live it out?

Two symbols come together in Isaiah 2:5 (NKJV) to form a beautiful instruction for our lives today:

“Walk in the light of the LORD.”

To walk means to make something your habit of life, your lifestyle, and the light of the LORD is a symbol of God’s word. God wants us to make walking in His light, our lifestyle.

Why is light used as a symbol of God’s word? What do we know about light in the physical world that can inspire us to walk in spiritual light?

• Light in the physical world shimmers, sparkles, twinkles, and glows. The moon radiates brightness over the earth. The night sky sparkles with jewels of greater and lesser brilliance. The streaming colors of the Aurora Borealis sway back and forth in a brooding dance. Summer fireworks burst and flash to the rhythms of John Philip Sousa and Francis Scott Key. The Eiffel Tower in her glittering evening wear, meditates by the Seine River. Light is beautiful and fascinating.
• Light also comforts, cheers, and warms us. When the electricity goes out at night, we’re grateful for a flashlight or candle. A campfire’s glow cheers those gathered around it. On a snowy evening, sitting on the hearth near the fire warms our hands, feet, and souls.
• Light saves lives. A piercing searchlight is cast across frantic waves. It doesn’t rest until it discovers the exhausted survivors of a capsized boat. A lighthouse sends out steady pulses of hope, no matter how violent the storm.

God wants us to take in the light of His word and live it out. But in order to do it, we have to choose it. What motivates us to choose it? Understanding and appreciating the spiritual light of God’s word. Seeing its beauty, and being fascinated by it. Experiencing its comforts, and feeling its warmth. Knowing firsthand the relief of its rescue, and the grace and peace of its hope. Walking in the light of the LORD becomes a way of life that we long for.

• Spiritual light is beautiful. Jeremiah 31:3 (NKJV) reassures us,
  

  “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”

• Spiritual light is fascinating. Joshua Chapter 10 tells us that God gave Israel more time to defeat its enemies by making the sun stand still.
• The light of the LORD comforts, cheers, and warms our hearts. Deuteronomy 31:8 (NKJV) says,
  

  “The LORD, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”

• The light of God’s word saves lives when we respond to it with faith, according to John 3:16.

To walk in the light of truth means to put it to practical use. We don’t just know the truth—we use it. We filter our thinking with it. We steer our choices and decisions by it. We consider the patterns of life in the Bible that are pleasing to God, and adopt them as our own. Those patterns of life are reinforced when we experience their benefits—strength, grace, comfort, help, relief, and spiritual refreshment.

Let’s be inspired by the beauty of spiritual light, and by its comfort, cheer, and warmth, to make God’s word our daily lifestyle. Let’s aspire to the quality of life that comes from practicing this habit of life: Walk in the light of the LORD.

Adapted from: Beebe Kauffman, Isaiah: Setting Things Right (Buford, Georgia: Lighthouse Bible Studies, LLC, 2013), 59-60. Used with permission.