By Carey Helmink

In my bible reading the past couple of weeks I have run across several verses that have to do with light. The reading plan I use is not straight through but includes passages from all over the bible, so I always find it very interesting when there is overlap in the topics. It reminds me of some of the themes that run through the entire bible start to finish. The discussion of light and dark as a way to talk about our spiritual condition is a metaphor that can found many times over.

Some of you did Beth Moore’s study on 1 & 2 Thessalonians last year. I actually went through that study last summer and loved it. One of the key verses from that study is:

For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. – 1 Thess. 5:5

Here are some other favorite verses of mine pertaining to the light of Christ in us:

For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. – 2 Cor. 4:6

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. – 2 Cor. 4:7

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. – Eph. 1:8

Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. – Phil 2:15

…You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. – 1 Peter 2:9

But here is the particular verse that I have been thinking about a great deal the past few days:

If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” – Luke 11:36

I love the picture of a life that is radiant, a life that is so full of life it’s like you have an internal floodlight.

But it’s easy to miss the little phrase that comes before all of that – If you are filled with light – with no dark corners. . . .  When I come into a relationship with the Lord, he fills me with light, but that light can only go as far as I will allow it to go. I am the keeper of those dark corners.

And notice the verse doesn’t say dark rooms but dark corners. Small spaces. It’s the little things, girls–the things that are hidden, the things that no one else knows about. The bitterness, the envy, the bad attitudes, the ungrateful heart – you can make your own list. One of my “dark corners” is eye-rolling. Not just external, mind you, but internal eye-rolling. My poor, dear husband has been the unfortunate recipient of that at times. It is a seemingly small thing, but it is a bad attitude that can be found in the dark corners of my life at times, and it needs to be confessed.

I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that most everyone in this room wants to live well. We want our lives to be flooded with the light of Christ, and we want to welcome him into every dark corner – no matter how small. Sometimes we are just so busy, we don’t take the time to confess the darkness in our lives and invite the Holy Spirit to make those dark places light.

What are the dark corners in your life that keep you from being a radiant light for Jesus?