Silence for 2-5 minutes:
If your mind wanders, silently pray a simple prayer again and again, such as, "I surrender to your love" or "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me" until the Holy Spirit gives you a sense of peace and focus.
Scripture: Psalm 36:7-12
7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. 9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.
10 Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart! 11 Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. 12 There the evildoers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise.
Reading:
Psalm 36:9 has always been a favorite verse for me. The Psalmist writes that in God he finds a fountain of life. In other words. His spiritual thirst is continually quenched by God who constantly gives him water to drink. It is reminiscent of Jesus’ great promise,” If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit. (John 7:38-39a) As we look to Jesus, and come to him thirsty for his presence, the Spirit quenches our thirst as a fountain ever flowing and without limit.
The second part of the verse is where I would like to focus. The Psalmist says something remarkably simple and profound. “In your light, we see light.” Here we see there are two types of light. The first light is the light of God. As we look to Jesus, we see that he is the light of the world, and the light that lights every man who has come into the world. Through Christ, we receive the revelation of the one, true and living God. It is the revelation that imparts to us our salvation and eternal life.
The second light the Psalmist speaks of refers to our need to understand reality and have discernment in every facet of life. Truly, only by the light of the Spirit do we truly see light. This is what the scripture calls discernment. It means that we have light in the darkness, in order to clearly see where to go, what to do and how God perceives things. This is true reality.
Paul explains how discernment is a unique and priceless gift to the believer:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:14-16
To have the mind of Christ in the many twists and turns of life, is to see “light in his light.”
Actions:
How might you see “light in his light” today? Are your decisions based on the discernment that comes from the Holy Spirit?
Prayer:
O Lord, you are the fountain of life that quenches my thirst. It is only in your light that I see light. When left to myself, my discernment and understanding are twisted and fallen. By your Spirit, I receive the mind of Christ. In your light I truly see light! Amen.
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