We Were Lost and Didn’t Even Know It

There are times in our lives when we look back on our life and think to ourselves man if I had only known better.  If I knew that what I was doing was going to cause so much pain, trouble, problems…  I would go back and change it.  The problem is we cannot go and change it, we are not able to travel through time and we cannot see into the future.  But at some point in our live we have or may still be living in the darkness.  Paul tells us, “Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.”(Eph 2:1-2)  Not some of us, but all of us at some point in our lives lived to please ourselves, we didn’t live for God we didn’t care about God.  No we lived in the darkness we were doomed we had no chance some may still be living that life.  Some may have heard of God may even go to church but they are not following God, instead they are living for themselves.  Some believe that it’s much more enjoyable living in the darkness they do not want to  see the light, for the light reveals too much of the truth about them.  This is what Christ tells us about those who choose to live the darkness; “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God.  Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished.  But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants.”(Jn 3:18-21)

Paul tells us that once we were dead had no hope, lived in the darkness.  Now we see that Christ is telling us that we have a choice we can come to Him and live for God and be in the light and share the light or we can reject Him and live in the darkness.  What does it look like to live in the darkness, it is when we decide that we want to live for ourselves we want to do what makes us feel good no matter the cost to others.  We desire the physical things of this world. Paul describes it in verse three for us; “among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”(eph2:3)  Paul doesn’t mess around he is telling us we all have lived this lifestyle before coming to Christ and giving our lives up to God we all went around wanting what made feel good.  Whatever built up our ego or give physical pleasure, we did it because we lived in the dark we didn’t know  better.  I warn you there are some who claim and may even think they are living in the light and yet there is still a darkness in them that they do want to give up, they are ashamed of it but they hold on to for dare life.  I’m telling you we must move out of the darkness and into the loving arms of God, we must go out and live our lives not for ourselves but for God and His Kingdom.

Take note in the following verses Paul tells us this, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ^even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)”(Eph 2:4-5)  Notice that there is nothing we do on our own but it is all God doing the work in us.  We must allow God to come into our lives and open up our eyes so we can the see evil we are doing.  Through God’s Grace and power we are able to see Him conquer the evil in our lives and bring us into the light.  We must come to realization that if we truly want to see God working in our lives, our church, our family we must surrender all to Him and give Him the glory.