THE WORLD’S MESSAGE IS SIMPLE: YOU ARE ENOUGH. ALL ON YOUR OWN, you are enough. But that mantra fails us—either because, deep down, we know we aren’t enough or because our self-esteem inflates us to the point that we charge through life independent of God and people. Either outcome leaves us lonely and disappointed. Self-esteem is not the answer.
So why are we working so hard to do life, to make a difference, and to be great all on our own?
Scripture describes Jesus as the light shining into the darkness and becoming the light of men.1 When I think about light, I realize that every single light humans have ever built requires energy or some force to light it. Flashlights, car lights, lamps—they all pull energy from some other source that can become drained or depleted.
Then I think of the light God creates. Fire, the sun, the stars all burning with great force—all the light He creates needs nothing to exist. It needs no other energy source. It just is.
When we find ourselves striving so hard to make a difference, to be enough, and to be important, it’s as though we’re trying to produce light on our own. And guess what happens when people try to produce anything in their own strength? We get tired. We experience a drain of energy, just like every man-made light that has ever been created.
So what if instead of trying to create light, we simply received light? That sounds so much more fun to me—and so much easier. We make lousy lights because we were built to enjoy and reflect light, not to produce it.
The vision of God for our lives is that we would receive His light and then give light to the world. In Matthew 5:14, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” Most of the time the New Testament refers to Jesus as being the Light, but when His Spirit lives in us, we are the light of the world. We receive who Jesus is and then give that away.
The degree to which you believe and embrace your identity as a Spirit-filled child of God will be the degree to which His light shines through you. You are God’s and He is yours. He is in you and through you and with you. That is your identity. And when you choose to embrace it, it changes everything.
If you embraced your true identity, you wouldn’t just be able to rest from striving to do impossible things; you would be able to sit in awe of this fierce, crazy, awesome, and uncontainable Light that is fully accessible to you. With Jesus as your light source, you can stop spinning, and simply reflect the light He gives.
MEDITATE
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5)
REWIRE THE SPIRAL
I can rest from striving, and God can still move through me.
PRAYER
God, I want to know what it is to enjoy and reflect Your light, rather than trying so hard to create my own. Please shine on and through me today. Amen.”
To grab your copy of Jennie Allen’s devotional, Stop the Spiral, click here.
Excerpted from Stop the Spiral Devotional by Jennie Allen. Copyright © 2024 by Jennie Allen. Published by WaterBrook, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC. Used by permission.
Scripture References
