By Light

John 10:^{10 “}The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

We established yesterday that the first thing the enemy does when he sees a light forward life is to attack it with guilt. Have you never struggled with guilt? For most people, the answer will be yes but guess what? The truth is that you must also have experienced conviction. If you are a child of God, God must have convicted you. The devil says, ‘you told a lie, so you are a liar‘. The Holy Spirit says, ‘you are not a liar, that is not who you are, so why are you lying?’ It is the words of the Holy Spirit that bring us to a place of repentance. The enemy’s attack is all about your identity; he is trying to brand you with what you have done. God seeks to show you with what you have done that that is not who you are.

If the devil fails in his plan to destroy you with Guilt, he will try to distract you. The second thing the enemy uses to attack a light forward life is Distraction. Luke 21:³⁴ “Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware.” God is saying that the day when Jesus Christ returns should not catch us unawares. To apply this on a daily is to not get distracted. Do not let the enemy distract you. The third thing the enemy uses to attack a light forward life is Excuses.

The classic example is the story of the rich man in Luke 14:17-20 (please read) who threw a party and invited all his friends to the banquet, but everyone had an excuse. As long as you have an excuse, you cannot make progress. If you want to light forward, you need to get rid of excuses. Why are you not reading that book, what is your excuse for not reading the book? If you want to light forward this year, you need to trash the excuses, pick up the book, and read it. What is your excuse for not reading your Bible? To light forward this decade, you must trash the excuses and actually begin to read your Bible. What is your excuse?

I have different strategies for prayer and time with God. But there is a big chunk of it, which is my prayer walk, when I go out and I walk, and I pray. While introspecting, I discovered that from around the middle to the end of 2019, there was just one excuse for why I could not go for the prayer walk that day, and the next day, and the next and it went on and on. But I refused to stay there, I chose to shoot down all the excuses because I will not be grounded. I light forward in the Name of Jesus and I pray that you will light forward. You need to shoot down the excuses. Beginning tomorrow, we are going to look at how to overcome guilt. We are going to look at what God has empowered us with in His Word to overcome the things that try to dull our lighting forward – guilt, distraction, and excuses.

Prayer: Father, I declare that I will not be grounded by guilt, distractions, or excuses. I will light forward, in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Amen!