Seeing Him Right
Our perception of Yahweh shapes everything about our faith and how we live it out. Pastor Tim highlighted how we often view Yahweh through our own lens of darkness rather than seeing Him as He truly is - pure light. Oftentimes we view scripture through the lens that was passed down to us. Like the verse Pastor Tim shared with us about heaping coals on our enemy’s head. (Proverbs 25) We’ve been told and understood this scripture to mean if we are nice to our enemy then God would burn them up with condemnation and make them pay on our behalf. We have seen this wrong all along. We were told it meant one thing but in light of the truth of 1 John, through the lens of beloved identity we see it right.
John declares that in Yahweh there is no darkness at all. This means that every attribute of Yahweh - His justice, His discipline, even His anger - stems from His perfect love and goodness.
We don’t talk a lot about the anger of Yahweh. We often hear people talk about how the wrath of God will come down on certain people. This is the same thinking about heaping coals on people’s head. We are viewing these scriptures with threads of darkness. The wrath of God is him coming after wrong thought patterns that interfere with His love for us and how we see Him. He does this for even our enemies.
“This is the life-giving message we heard him share and it’s still ringing in our ears. We now repeat his words to you: God is pure light. You will never find even a trace of darkness in him. If we claim that we share life with him, but keep walking in the realm of darkness, we’re fooling ourselves and not living the truth. But if we keep living in the pure light that surrounds him, we share unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, continually cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:5-7
Today, examine your view of Yahweh. Are there areas where you've attributed darkness to Him? Perhaps you've seen His discipline as punishment rather than loving correction. Or maybe you've interpreted challenging circumstances as Him being against you rather than working for your good. Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight any misconceptions you have about Yahweh’s character. We have to see Him right in order to walk daily in His light. This is what brings about unbroken fellowship with each other, which is very important for our purpose here. On earth as it is in heaven. As beloved children of Yahweh, when we are bound together as Kingdom family, we are a force to be reckon with to conquer the world with His love and mercy.
Meditate on the truth that He is pure light, and allow this reality to transform how you relate to Him and others!
