Isaiah 60:1-3
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is dawning upon you. Look, darkness covers the earth, and deep darkness covers the peoples, but the Lord will dawn upon you, and his glory will be seen over you. Nations will walk to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for giving us the dawning of new days when the light begins to emerge across the landscape, bringing the radiance of the sun’s warmth. Likewise, Your glory emerges and defeats the darkness of our iniquities. They came upon us when the entire world was cast into darkness resulting from our first parent’s sin.
Our sins resemble the night’s darkness because when we do something we know is not right, we feel regret and shame for those things; perhaps a buyer’s remorse for that which our pride and sinful desire pulled us into doing. We sense sin’s darkness oppressing us because of what we did.
However, You desire all people to be saved and do not want us to remain in the obscurity of our suffering. So You sent Your Son to disable the darkness of the world’s sins. Like the dawning of a new day, His love illuminated that darkness from the cross when He took all our sins into Himself, praying that You “forgive them for they do not know what they are doing!” So, we have forgiveness through faith in Jesus.
Lord, may we see and feel the glory of Your Son upon us; may we know and trust the peace of forgiveness Jesus won for us. So that one day, when we breathe our last breath on this earth, our next moment will be with You in heaven for eternity.
Please allow us to share the dawning of Your glory with those suffering with sins’ shame, guilt, and remorse so that they, too, will know and trust Jesus’ love and forgiveness, realizing salvation and eternal life are delivered through faith in Him. Amen.
Written through Pastor Roger Emmons
Like the warmth of the morning sun after a cold winter’s night, so is God’s love with His blessing of forgiveness. Confidently hold on to Christ, who died for all your sins, so God’s glory will dawn on you, and you will be secured in your salvation.