“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”

Psalms 119:105

You left Your Word for us so that none of your children would ever remain in the darkness of ignorance. Your Word is complete and contains everything your children need to be complete and to know perfectly. One cannot claim that he has left the old ground, pure fleshy ground, for the new ground without Your Word. For if one desires to see in the dark, he needs Your Word, not only to light up his path but also to slash every obstacle on his path.

I have lived but never was I alive and as I have left the dark, this New LIGHT in which I'm in is shaping me, changing me, cleansing me... I cannot claim to be there yet, because this is all new to me. However, I have the feeling that it was Your plan to bring me on this new ground all along, You only needed me to trust You.

“O LORD, You have searched me and known me”

Psalms 139:1

Introduce me to this place You have brought me in, tell me about it, because I find it lively, there is no death on this ground. Even pain feels different from before, it does not bring me down the way it used to, but makes my confidence in You stronger. For the Bible says:

“Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.”

Psalms 84:5-7

Darkness on this new ground seems shiny. Even when LIGHT seems to fade, I can still feel its brightness on my eyes. After all, darkness only announces a move from You. Because day and night, You are still MIGHTY. You do not meet me only when it is dark but when it is day as well. When I think that You are not coming, it’s not because You are really absent, it’s because I am too busy crying to You while looking at my sufferings and listening to how loud I can be while shouting, instead of crying to You simply and have my eyes on You and waiting to listen to You. Sometimes, we do not hear You, because we are too busy listening to our own cry resonating in our heads instead of listening to You answering to us after hearing our cry. Day or night, You listen Father and You do answer.

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ even the night shall be light about me; Indeed,
the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day;
the darkness and the light are both alike to You.”

Psalms 139:11-12

When I look behind, I can see how ugly the place I called beautiful really is, my vision seems different, I think my eyes are open. The Ground on which I stand must have caused them to open. I want to cry, because all this time, I was actually blind, what I claimed to have, wasn’t what I really had, I was dead and unable to see the truth even when it was right in front of me, I still don't know how You've managed but LORD, You have opened my eyes as You promised You would if only I let You.

I cannot claim to have or know anything anymore, I know nothing of this new Ground but I already LOVE it, I'm being pulled back to where I come from, I am weak but I feel like I am not alone and I know for sure that my place was never where I come from but where You are leading me.

“Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies.”

Psalms 141:4

So please, pull me back and do not let go of me, this life that I feel on this new ground, is far different from the life I used to feel on the old ground, which was so full of ignorance and myself... As the Bible decrees in Psalms 141:8 “But my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord; in You I take refuge; do not leave my soul destitute.” I can present more differences between these two grounds, because at every step I take, The LIGHT is brighter and more beautiful... I don't know what is ahead, and since I stepped on this new ground, I've seen darkness sometimes but it's funny, despite the dark I can still feel that special LIGHT not only on my eyes but in me as well and after each time it got dark, a bigger pressure of LIGHT hit me right after, with a smooth warmth.

With such surprise, I definitely confess that I do not know what is ahead. The only thing I know, is that it's better than where I come from. And each moment the dark came and You managed to get me through, is actually building up my confidence and trust in the unseen. Doubt, fear, confusion have been replaced by PEACE like no other peace I felt before.

“The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:26 NIV).

I feel like my eyes are not the same, I can see the unseen and the dark is for my eyes the proof that You are about to come with a greater LIGHT. Nothing makes sense but everything is still beautiful and appealing.

I am no longer the dead-living person I was; I am alive in a manner as different and weird than it is beautiful. After all, I found a Rock on which I can stand and move forward after stepping on this ground, I call the Rock Jesus. I don't know this ground, but if Lord You are willing to tell me more about it, than I am incline to listen and to learn more about it.

Hold my hand and walk with me, telling me about the place where You have taken me, I trust that You are taking me to a better place (Jeremiah 29:11). Grief and Pain may come, the warmth of Your Hand is telling me that it is well. You know my pain because the Bible says in John 11:35 “Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how He loved him!’”, I can feel Your hand shaking as You are holding me. Though it is hard, You are telling me that all is well because You got this. We already have eternal life through Christ, in a place that You planned to take us to before giving us life.

I definitely want to move forward with you on this ground. I know that when You are not holding me, You are in front of me, preparing the next Ground for me. I may not know where You are taking me, but I am confident in the depth of the LOVE that has woven me and do not have a doubt that You will be with me on the Ground in preparation.

Finally on the new Ground, as I thought, it is brighter but not as bright as I expected, it is beyond my expectations. I did not trust You could reach or exceed my expectations, actually You knew that because You felt it while You were holding me. Yet You hold me again, and walk me through this new Ground. My life on the dark ground has really been a succession of mess and the sad thing is that I could not realize it. How could I? That's all I knew. I'm not sad about that anymore, because I had to know the dark before knowing the LIGHT in order to be complete.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But
let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

James 1:2-4

I KNOW NOW THAT THIS LIGHT WILL GET BRIGHTER, AND IT WILL ALWAYS BE BRIGHTER THAN I EXPECT. FOR AS I LOOK BACK, YOU'VE NEVER MET MY EXPECTATIONS, YOU’VE ALWAYS GONE BEYOND THEM. CHALLENGES MAY COME, JUST GIVE ME STRENGTH TO STAND STILL AND WAIT UPON YOU TO FIGHT THE BATTLE. GIVE ME THE VICTORY, HELP ME RECEIVE IT IN FAITH, AS I REMAIN IN YOU, O LORD.

Author: Armel Lwamba