Starlight

Every year I look forward to going to our Christmas Eve candle light service. I love to pause and remember the reason behind this very busy season and savor the thought that Christ is with us. But this year, I know it will hold a whole new meaning for me.

I find that I wrestle with the darkness a lot more during the holidays. I wake up and the struggle begins. I look at my husband, unable to put into words what I feel, but I long for him to help carry the weight I am feeling. I am more aware, emotionally, of what I don’t have, what I have lost, what is broken, and I have a hard time pulling myself up out of the darkness.

I don’t tend to over-spiritualize things, but I think the enemy tries to have us focus on our hurt and pain on purpose. If you step back and look at what is going on in the natural world, it mirrors the fight happening in the supernatural.

In the natural world, there is such an emphasis on the material things, that feeds the fear that what we have isn’t enough. It doesn’t matter if our tv was fine two months ago, now we need a new one. My closest may be full, but I still can’t “find” anything to wear and I need more clothes. We become all too aware of what we don’t have.

On a heart level, we know another year has gone by, and sometimes what was broken in the past is still broken. There hasn’t been any change. There hasn’t been any movement.

There’s a drive for the intangible things – happiness, peace, joy – to be fulfilled by the tangible. The enemy heightens our awareness to the hurt and pain in our life, to have us stay in this cycle that seems never ending. But the tangible never removes the hurt of the intangible.

The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Our fight isn’t against what our eyes can see, but what our heart can feel. The enemy wants us to focus on our have nots and feel like we have a hopeless story, but Christ came so that we can have life and have it more abundantly. We don’t have to be trapped by the darkness.

Our fight isn’t against what our eyes can see, but what our heart can feel.

When you think about the supernatural world, the day before Christ came, the world was as dark as the day Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. There was no light. The darkness ruled and reigned. The only hope the people of God had was the pending promise of God’s son coming.

The star that was raised when Jesus was born mirrors what happened in the supernatural world. It was a spark of light that changed the story of darkness. It illuminated that night to speak of the light that would eliminate the darkness forevermore. That light, it’s very essence, is the picture of Christ’s power and might. Darkness has no more authority. It has no more power.

Christ’s walk to Calvary completely drove out the power of darkness and gave way for you and me to walk in the Light.

From that moment in time, the world has only become brighter. Christ’s walk to Calvary completely drove out the power of darkness and gave way for you and me to walk in the Light. One soul at a time, one spark at a time and the world is getting brighter and brighter.

This Christmas Eve, when you are at a candle light service, look around the room with a new perspective. As each candle is lit, let it remind you that your fight is already won. And as the room becomes filled with light, remember the hope of Christ will always defeat the darkness.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
The light shines in the darkness, & the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1:4-5