The Light of the world takes on the Prince of Darkness.
by Tami Rudkin
I am the Root and Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star (Revelation 22:16, NIV).
Simply speaking those words, repeating His name, soothes my spirit and impels me to look to the pale eastern horizon where the beautiful Morning Star shines. From there Jesus surveys His magnificent handiwork and extends His mighty right hand to us, offering the promise that He is always here, no matter how dark the night might be.
Dark night
And this night has been so ever dark.
Homemade bombs have been strategically placed to kill hundreds of innocent lives; husbands have beaten their wives; children have plotted to kill their parents. The darkness seems to ooze into every available crack and crevice of our carnal existence.
Even those of us who claim to worship the mighty God wage a bloody battle against the suffocating blackness. We glance bitterly at the spouse we once loved; we utter hurtful words to the faultless child; we harbor hatred and arrogance for authority in our most vulnerable hearts. In our spirits we fight loathsome phantoms hidden even to those who know us best.
Prince of darkness
It is a dark, dark night.
It is no secret why Satan is called the Prince of Darkness. He purposefully rules our earth, gleefully pulls the strings of our nation’s leaders, and painstakingly bids his time, master-planning ways to control you and me.
But this dismal evil is not eternal, nor is it all-powerful. This darkness is, and will continue to be, subservient to the most cherished Son, to the one who called Himself the light of the world, the lamp unto our feet, the beautiful, graceful, bright Morning Star.
New day
At the midnight of our personal darkness we need only remember that Jesus, the star, comes to the horizon of our lives, ushering in a new day of light in which the darkness of our blackest night is chased away. And, like the wise men seeking the newborn King, we are compelled to profess to all the world, “We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” With saints of old, seekers of today, and the celestial choirs of forever, we join in riotous praise as the oppressive gloom of sin and death flees before the shining Morning Star! At His feet we bow our hearts and minds and adore Him.
I, like you, have experienced the smothering of sin’s darkness, but now I live in the glistening hope of the Morning Star. In His presence I experience a new dawn, a new day.
A day of realizing my shortcomings and accepting His completeness.
A day of reckoning my debt and relying on His riches.
A day of rejoicing in my newfound salvation and thanking Him for the sunrise.
This is my new dawn, my new day, my new hope in the rays of the bright Morning Star.
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