3 Solutions ToAny Problem: Part 4 (The End)

“But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.”
1 Thessalonians 5:4-9


As I said before, I don’t believe there is any problem that can’t be solved with faith, hope or love. When a situation comes up that is troublesome, we use these three things together as a team to get through it. They may not resolve the situation or make it go away, but they will put your focus on other things so that the situation is more bearable. These three things are choices you make daily to live in the light instead of the darkness. Chances are that if you feel as though you are living in the darkness, you are not utilizing three of the most important tools God has given us. As these verses say, if we put on our armor and use it to fight our spiritual battles, we will belong to the day, or the light. It is when our focus is on the wrong things that we lose the battle. Every day, we all face spiritual battles of one kind or another. It can be a situation involving conflict with someone else, a negative attitude, laziness, criticizing others, blaming others for things or many other such things. No matter what the situation, the enemy (Satan) tries his hardest to get us out of focus on God and instead becoming selfish. He really loves it when he can get us thinking that we are innocent and above others and that other people are to blame for our problems. I believe that is one reason why the Bible says, “But the greatest of these is love.” When we are choosing to love someone else, we are putting the focus on others and taking it off of ourselves. That is becoming increasingly difficult, as our society tells us to “get in touch with ourselves”, “love ourselves”, “you deserve it” and “it’s all about me.” But God still calls us to stop being of the world and living in darkness and to instead come out into the light where we can see other people. In the darkness all you can see is yourself and know that you are there. In the light, you are fully aware of others in the world.
So, how do we come out of the darkness and into the light? It is a choice that you must make. At first, it might be scary because whenever someone comes into the light they are blinded. Their eyes are not able to focus. At that moment it is scary and you want to go crawl back into the darkness, but the moment your eyes begin to refocus, you are so much more aware of the wonderful things you can see and experience in the light. God helps us to see all those wonderful things and it all starts with faith. You have to have faith in God and His promises in order to step out of the darkness in the first place. It all begins with just a tiny bit of faith. Just enough faith to take that next step. Then, when you take that step out and your eyes are blinded, you stay out in the light because your faith begins to grow. You trust God enough to know that he is going to help you through this. As your eyes refocus and you begin to see the light, hope begins to form in your heart. You begin to see God’s beautiful creation as He intended it to be. Seeing the wonderful flowers, trees, plants, animals and other human beings helps you to realize how much you were missing by living in the darkness. As you see that what God promised is really true, your faith grows even more and you begin to have hope that things in the light really are going to be better than they were in the darkness. After you have begun to hope and your faith is still growing every second, then your hope begins to grow as you realize all the wonderful things God has planned for your life. Then after your hope has started to grow as well, God begins to replace the selfishness you had in your heart with His love. It is through his love that you can then begin to love others.
Someone who is not a Christian is living in the darkness by its truest sense. They have no light whatsoever in their lives. That is why Christians are to be light to the world. If a Christian comes around a non-christian, that Christian should be shining light in the other’s life by their faith, hope and love. If that person does not exhibit these qualities, then their witness to others is compromised. You can be a Christian and still not be fully in the light if there are areas of your life that are still in darkness. If there is part of your life or a situation that God is not in control of, that part is in the dark. Most likely if there is anything negative in your life then you are not putting faith, hope and love into practice with that particular thing. Because if you were, then that area of your life would be acceptable to you because you know it is part of God’s plan. Sometimes we begin to practice faith, hope and love in an area in our lives and then for some reason, we quit. It is then that this area is once again in the darkness. So, once again you have to make the choice to step out from the darkness into the light through faith. In my opinion, it all begins with faith. And as you step out again, you begin the process all over. Maybe you stepped out in faith before and then got scared and ran back into the darkness. Maybe you stepped out in faith and began to have hope, but because you did not forgive someone, you were not able to love them and so you ran back into the darkness. This is why it is so important to put on our armor of faith, hope and love every day so that when Satan throws an arrow of temptation at you, it will hit your helmet of hope or breastplate of faith and love and it will bounce off. His darts will not hurt you. Without your protection, anything that Satan throws at you, will hurt you in some way or another. But the most incredible thing in the world is that God calls us to come out of the darkness and fight the spiritual battle, but he gives us the most advanced equipment and strategies. These are no fail strategies that work 100% of the time when used correctly. It is in our humanness that we fail to use them correctly or even to use them at all. But when we do, we are unstoppable. This is only through God’s unending power and love. If we start using our own equipment, we will lose the battle. There are other very important weapons in this battle as Ephesians 6 tells us. We must always be ready for battle with every single piece of protection we can find because the more battles we win, the harder satan is going to fight us. So make sure that you are ready for you battle today with faith, hope and love. If you aren’t, take that first step out of the darkness and ask God to help your faith, hope and love to grow in Him. He won’t let you down.