The Heavenly light

It has been a few weeks since I’ve read the Bruised Reed and a few thoughts linger in my mind.  In this week’s section Sibbes, speaks of how in the Christian there can be times where trials are so heavy they become like that very smoldering flax described in Isa 42.  However the hope, Sibbes says, is that there is “a small beam of light whereby the kingdom of darkness does not wholly prevail.”  The origin of this light is where Sibbes explains general rules of how that heavenly fire can be understood.  One of his rules is described as, where this heavenly light is kindled, it directs in the right way.

I found myself most encouraged by this since it challenges me to think of where my strength is coming from and how it causes me to lead my family.  Sibbes says a very pointed and helpful statement here:

Some have light of knowledge, yet follow not that light, but are guided by carnal reason and policy, such as those that the prophet speaks of, ‘All ye that kindle a fire … walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.  This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow’ (Isa 50:11)… We must therefore, walk by His light, not by the blaze of our own fire.  God must light our candle (Psalm 18:28) or else we will abide in darkness.  Those sparks that are not kindled from heaven are not strong enough to keep us from lying in sorrow, though they make a greater blaze and show than the light from above, as madmen do greater things than sober men, but by a false strength: so the excess of these men’s joy arises from a false light. (pg. 39-40)

If you have faced trying times or have had dry seasons in your walk with the Lord, the temptation is to try to “get yourself fired up” again for Christ.  I’ve done that and as Sibbe’s rightly said, produced nothing since those self-produced blazes are not strong enough.  Why?  Those fires were not from Him.  They were not kindled by Christ, that spark we tried to turn into a blaze was not God’s spark but our own.  Our affections may have been driven by guilt instead of love.  We may have been drawn back to Christ out of neglect instead of drawn by His cords of love (Hosea 11).