Good News about God: The Lord is My Light (Part 2)

I'm following up on last week's posting on the good news about God being Light and that we cannot truly live without experiencing the light of His countenance/face shining on us always.

I'd like to approach this with different language to help with understanding how critical it is that we experience the light that comes from His shining countenance, His smile.

In the maturing process of humans, the foundation necessary for developing into healthy adulthood is laid in the early days and months and years of the child. What the infant looks for immediately is the mother's smiling face and loving touch. The smile of absolute acceptance and approval along with her loving touch tells the infant the he is unconditionally loved without having done anything to earn that; he is loved and accepted purely for the fact that he is her child. The father's loving voice affirms this reality.

If the infant does not experience the smile and brightness that comes from the adoring eyes of the mother in his early development, he grows up striving to earn the love and approval of his parents, and as an adult, his life is driven by the need to perform in hopes of being accepted by others. The unconditional acceptance that comes through the eyes of a good mother roots him in love so that his life work assignment is an expression of the unearned acceptance that he has freely received.

The same is true of our life in God; if the foundation that is laid for the "infant believer" is mainly about what he can accomplish for God, then he carries a mindset of religion that demands all kinds of compliance to this rule or to that system in order to be accepted. Many believers live our life in God striving to get approval by conforming to what we believe is expected of us because of our lack of living understanding of the unconditional acceptance of God in Christ Jesus.

Much Christian service is about this desperate need for approval and for proving our worth to others and to God. We need to experience the heavenly Father's light-filled countenance shining on us in order to be freed from dead works. And for that, we must understand that God is light and there is not even a shadow of changeableness or fickleness about Him (James 1:17); the light that shines from His countenance isn't sometimes light and sometimes dark, depending on His mood. When He looks at me, His favor shines on me, not because I have earned it but because I am His child by virtue of the blood of my Elder Brother Jesus.

I encourage you to take a few moments and imagine what kind of look you think the heavenly Father has on His face when He looks at you, especially when you feel you've really messed up. Is it one of disappointment, disapproval, disgust, impatience, anger, belittlement...? His face is full of light in which is no darkness at all. He won't approve of some of my behavior and attitudes, and He will correct that but never in a way that reflects anything but affection and acceptance of me as a person for whom He has deep affection and liking.

I need to walk in His unconditional acceptance of me every day in order to live free from dead works, and so it's good news about God that He is all light; I can look up into His face and know that what I will encounter in that look is light and life, and I am empowered by His approving smile to serve Him and others without a slave mentality, and I am also empowered to receive His correction in a life-giving way.

Again here are some Scriptures from last week that you can meditate on related to this: James 1:17; Numbers 6:25; Psalm 27:1; 139:11,12; Isaiah 60:20; Daniel 2:22; Micah 7:8; John 1:4,5; 8:12; I Timothy 6:15,16; I John 1:5.