Recently, I have developed a well of gratitude for the flashlight feature on my cell phone. I feel like I have a floodlight in my hand when I flip it on. It’s the first thing I reach for when I’m searching through the dark cavern that is my purse or to locate my keys and credit card when they drop underneath my car seat—the worst! How did I ever find anything without my phone’s flashlight?!
But it is an interesting business when you have the flashlight being shown on you and not the other way around.
I remember once having company over at my house, and one of my guests had dropped an earring that went under my couch. Pulling out their nifty flashlight on their cell phone, they quickly exposed all the dust, dirt, and even a few old tortilla chips underneath my couch. Next came the play-by-play as they described everything they were finding under there.
I was so embarrassed! I felt like a house cleaning failure, but being good friends, they laughed with me and then got a rag to clean under my couch while they were down there looking for their earring!
In a lot of ways, I feel like that is what God is wanting to do in all of us in this particular season.
His Spirit is on a search for individuals, churches, and ministries that are ready for deep change, and are willing to let Him come in with the searchlight of truth to light up all there is to see:
- -The good
- -The bad
- -The ugly
- -The grey, in-between areas that we tend to justify and create
When Jesus comes with His searchlight of truth, He wants to reach into every place in our soul and eradicate the dark, the vague, and the undefined. He does it because if we let His light and truth in, He can meet us with the love and grace to change whatever the light shows.
You see, He is not on a mission for mere right behavior. He aims deeper than the fruit and goes for the root. He wants to get your soul cleaned out, healed and truly whole. When this is right, your life will produce what it is meant to grow: goodness and blessing.
John wrote, “Beloved I wish above all that you would prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.” (3 John 1:2)
It seems like we can only produce goodness and blessing and walk in His authority to the degree that our soul is grown.
I am talking about our attitudes, identity, beliefs, coping mechanisms, past hurts, and even wrong motives that might look good at first but when given a closer look, are rooted in brokenness.
Jesus knows that when we let Him bring in His light and we have the courage of heart to see it with Him, He breathes His grace into us to enable change. That’s when the action really kicks in! He will unlock parts of us that have been hidden away or buried deep for so long, and now new pieces of who we are can begin to break free.
So let me encourage you, brave heart, to let Him come and sweep His searchlight over the canvas of your heart. Allow Him to clear out the broken so that His goodness and love can breathe life into the seeds that are already planted in the soil of your heart. Let Him do His necessary work so that these precious seeds that carry pieces of you have the chance to germinate and grow.
Your life is waiting on this process to take place, and He has been so patiently waiting on you to allow it to begin.
Truly the best of you is still to be seen, but it can begin today just by opening up the true you to His light. Let love come and fill you up. The experience may be hard at times, but the pain is momentary and the results—those are a gift for a lifetime!