His Light Ignites His Church not the World

Are some Christians looking for their prayers to be answered by the world becoming Light? I know I can be discouraged with the onslaught of darkness and evil that is amassing. Yet what I see in the Word is that the Light will come to the Church, and not just any church, but to the transcendent Church of Jesus Christ. This is beyond denominations and organizations and includes the elect. Many become frustrated by living in a dark world, which seems to grow darker by the day. Why aren’t our prayers for a brighter world being answered? Here is the reality: the world is never going to change and become Light, or be redeemed. Christ’s Spirit comes to the Church and She becomes Light, not the world.

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
1 John 5:19

His Light not the World’s Darkness

I will be only frustrated if I expect the world to be anything but darkness. And any condemnation of the world I might have only entangles me with it. The world is not going to be lit. It isn’t supposed to be. We are to become the Light we seek by letting Christ bring His Light through us. Then the world will do everything in its power to extinguish that Light. Oh for joy! Look at Mark 10: “…along with persecutions…”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and to receive eternal life in the age to come.
Mark 10:29-30

Expecting His Light

If I expect a celebration of Christ’s Light, I will be disappointed. His Light will seek His own, and through them the Light will spread. The endless reports of the world behaving badly will continue. The world will never be a beacon of His Light. And as long as I look for corrupt politicians to be righteous, I will be sorely disappointed. Hollywood will never rise one morning as “Holy-wood.” The long and short of this is that the world is the world and functions like the world. My call is to be Light in the midst of darkness. And His Light will spread as His primed embers, the children of God, are ignited to be Light.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.”
John 8:12

No, this doesn’t mean I hunker down in a bunker and wait it out. The Word says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). My call is to focus on the Son and His return and pray for His transcendent Church to be ready to meet Him as the Bride. I’m not to pray that the world will be transformed, but that the called and chosen on this earth will shine in His brightness. This removes the false expectations from my heart. Another thing this does is hone my focus to what the Lord broods upon. My gaze will be His own view, not the wayward actions of the world.

Jesus is the Light

I hope to liberate our hearts from the burden of accomplishing something that will never transpire. The world will always behave badly, but Jesus is the Light of the world and His Light shines through the members of His Body.  It truly is enough to “be” Light in a dying world. Those intended on catching the fire will ignite and burn brightly in His perfect timing and according to His Will.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:33

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But My kingdom is not from the world.”
John 18:36