Keep Your Eyes On the Light

John 8:12 Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

The other day as I was driving home from church, I was stopped at a stoplight. I was in the left-hand turn lane waiting for the green arrow to appear. There were two lanes to the right of me waiting on the green light so they could move forward. Across the road there were two lanes of traffic facing me, also waiting on the light to turn green. When the green arrow appeared giving me the right to turn, the light turned green for the other two lanes on my right side as well. As we were all moving in our respective directions, from across the street I see another car coming my way. Now this car does not have the right to move forward because the light had not turned green on that side of the road yet. Thankfully, I was paying attention and quickly came to a halt as I allowed this person to continue moving in the right direction, albeit at the wrong time.

Stay Focused

As I continued to drive home I could not help but wonder what was on this person's mind that they totally ignored the sign that was right in front of them. It was then that Holy Spirit began to speak words of clarity to me. He said, "That person had shifted their attention to the other people and taken their eyes off of the light. The light told them to remain still and not to move. But they were watching the other cars move and without thinking, just went with the flow."

Needless to say, I could not help but think about how common this is in the life of the Believer. How often have we taken our eyes off Jesus and the directions that He has given us for life, only to focus on those around us and we end up moving when they move. Just like the stoplight experience, we move even though we are not going in the same direction. We move, even though it is not our turn to do so.

Deadly Potential

Moving in the wrong direction at the wrong time has the potential to lead to death. Had I not been alert, there would have been a collision. One or more persons could have possibly died. Cars could have been totaled, traffic would have been stalled, others would have been inconvenienced, simply because one person was distracted and had taken their eyes off the light.

The more I thought about this incident, the more I realized how important it is that we keep our eyes on Jesus and wait on His command to move. I know that there are many things that can cause us to get distracted. And most of the time it happens while we are in motion. But even when we are standing still, the enemy has a trap set that can cause us to lose our focus and get our minds off of the Light of the World!

Abundant Life

Jesus says in our text...“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” The light that leads to life! He is not just talking about eternal life!! Jesus came that we might have life and have it in abundance. John 10 :10 (NLT) The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. Just like driving through a red light has the potential to steal, kill, and destroy the natural life of an individual, so it is in your spiritual life when you take your eyes off the Light of this World and begin moving with the crowd around you. Disobedience to the Holy Spirit's leading can prove spiritually deadly.

How many times have Holy Spirit spoken to you to stand still but you moved ahead of his warning? What were the consequences? Or how many times have you become the victim of someone else's mistake even though you were the one moving in the right direction at the right time? Isn't it clear that when we are not paying attention, when we get our eyes off the Light, that we hurt not only ourselves, but others too.

As I close, may we all keep our eyes on the Light. Regardless to what others may be doing around you, make sure that you are focused on Jesus. Make sure that your focus is in the direction that He is taking you so that you can arrive safely and so that you do not destroy yourself or anyone else on the journey.

Blessings,

Pastor Karen