Ever Brighter Reflections

January 10

God’s provision is complete. His spiritual treasure is all around for us to gather as we ply His Word for nuggets of golden truth. From the beginning of the Bible to the end, we find our King’s treasure trove pouring out for us to glean of the wealth of His eternal certainty.

Yet, like prospectors in earth’s goldmines, we must dig into the veins of truth in order to find all that is there for us to possess. We do not wish to be content with the mere scattering of nuggets that can be gleaned from panning the surface of what is revealed to us. We want to dig deeply and discover all He has for us.

Toward that end, He has provided the Holy Spirit as our Partner in prospecting. Jesus has promised that the Comforter would come and that He would teach us all truth (John 14:26). When we open our hearts to Jesus, the Third Person of the Trinity becomes the Indweller of our spirits and He guides us in the way we should go in order that we may discover the fullness of God’s will for our lives.

In this regard, the Holy Spirit is rather like the science teacher in a laboratory where his students have the opportunity to experiment and to discover and to record scientific data on their own. He gives the basic guidelines and then allows the learners in his charge to discover knowledge on their own. The general consensus is that knowledge discovered in this fashion is more likely to be retained than if it is acquired through reading a book or being instructed by a teacher.

Our God wants us to discover His truth and He wants us to appropriate the power of His presence in our lives. He doesn’t require us to open our innermost being to Him but He is available when we invite Him in to be the heart of our existence.

How does this happen? Jesus says in Matthew 7:7, 8, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” God knows we will value truth more if we seek it for ourselves—as the prospector who searches values the wealth he gains.

May we hunger and thirst after Him so fully that each day of our lives will be an exercise in achieving an ever deepening relationship with Him; that every moment of our existence will find us diminishing in our own control of our lives and allowing Jesus to increase in power in us. May our lives become ever-brighter reflections of the glory of the Christ we love and serve.