Have you ever wondered why God named the darkness instead of getting rid of it?   The Earth was in a state of desolation and darkness just prior to God creating man (Most likely due to the fall of Lucifer).  The first thing God did after moving and brooding over the condition of the Earth was to create light.  Then He separated the light from the darkness.

Couldn’t He have done like He’s going to do in the end with the city of New Jerusalem?  In New Jerusalem the Bible says there is no night there because the glory of the Lord and the glory of the Lamb lights it (Revelation 21:23).

Why did God leave the darkness here?  For that matter, why did God put the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden?

God is glorified when we choose good over evil, light over darkness, life over knowledge.  God is glorified when we choose His ways and His commands over the suggestions of darkness.  And when we choose Him over darkness, His glory will light our lives and there will be no darkness, no night in our lives!

The choice is here.  Darkness or Light.  Adam and Eve had the choice- Knowledge or Life.  We have a choice on a daily basis who we are going to serve.   We may have made the decision to give our lives to Jesus Christ, but we have choices every day to make who we are going to follow and how we are going to live.

The Bible makes it clear that God desires to have a relationship with us and if our choices to follow Him are not in response to His love then we’re just going through the motions of a set of man-made beliefs and commands.  God doesn’t desire for us to do what man says we need to do to please Him.

Jesus told the woman at the well a day was coming when the true worshippers of God would worship Him in spirit and in truth, (John 4:23).  To worship Him in spirit means we worship according to our hearts and the Spirit of God within us.  The Spirit of God will lead us to worship God the way He desires to be worshipped.  When you give someone a gift don’t you want to give them something they really want and not something that you think they would like?  In the same way, we can worship God in a way that pleases Him and not in a way that pleases us.

What God desires is our response to His love.  He loved us first. He gave first.   And He gave us a choice.  He doesn’t force a relationship with Him on anyone.  But when we respond to His love by choosing Him over everything else, His light and His glory come into our life and there will be no darkness in our life, just like in the city of New Jerusalem!

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.