“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.Therefore do not be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible — and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” — Ephesians 5:6-14
One morning, one of the executive assistants at our office came in walking with a noticeable limp. I asked her, “How did you get hurt?”
“Hurt? I’m not hurt,” she replied.
“Then why are you walking with a limp?”
She walked toward me trying to show me that she was limp free, but lo and behold she had a very obvious limp. Suddenly we both laughed out loud because when we looked down at her feet, we noticed she had on two different kinds of shoes. One was a navy blue pump with a three-inch heel and the other a black pump with a one-inch heel. And then she said, “My husband was asleep when I was getting ready for work this morning, so I got dressed in the dark. I couldn’t see that I put on two different kinds of shoes.”
A person getting dressed in a well-lit room would never put on two different shoes. In other words, the choices we make in darkness are vastly different than the choices we make in the light.
In Ephesians 5:6-14, Paul tells us that before we trusted Christ, we lived in spiritual darkness. But now that we’ve trusted Christ, we are in the spiritual light. God opens our eyes to His spiritual reality. Pray for the Holy Spirit to bring light to God’s Word as you read it and pray that you would live in the light.
— Ikki Soma, Houston Rockets chaplain
The Increase, part of the Sports Spectrum Network, is a community of Christian pro athletes sharing their personal stories of the decrease of self and the increase of Christ (John 3:30). Visit TheIncrease.com for more stories and videos.
