Through The Bible in a Year - September 16, 2026

“For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” - Ephesians 5:8-9

My adult son built a climbing wall up the side of his vaulted living room when the Covid pandemic required our families to shelter in place. The pegs on the wall were a sacrifice of the family’s living space provided to give my son’s children something to do and to show them that they were more special than the appearance of the wall.

What my son didn’t anticipate was how the climbing wall enabled his children to do far more than he or they expected. The pegs on the wall got the children just high enough that they could reach the staircase railing to a higher floor of the house and climb all the way to the balcony above—far higher than they’d ever been, far higher than anyone expected.

The provision the children’s father made to prove their preciousness to him gave them the ability to go far higher than they had previously been able or thought possible.

That is akin to the point the Apostle Paul is making in Ephesians 5:8-9. Paul says that we were once darkness. But now—because of what Christ has done, because of the Father’s sacrifice on your behalf, because you are a dearly loved child—you are light in the Lord. So, walk as the children of God that you are.

Such walking will take you higher than you expected. God’s provision will take you beyond whatever you have been able to do under your own power and abilities. The joy of the Lord becomes your strength. The security of being beloved produces fruit you couldn’t manufacture by your own effort.

Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, once walked the mountain trails of Switzerland asking whether God was real in the light of the hypocrisies he witnessed in the church. What he rediscovered—gradually, honestly—was the meaning of Christ’s work in a moment-by-moment relationship with God. He came to recognize more and more that such a relationship was not and could not be based on his performance – he failed just as those whose hypocrisies he observed. Nor could a relationship with God be based on intellect. He still had more questions than the processes of his mind could satisfy.

Rather, he recognized that a relationship with God had to be based on the provision of God. That meant God had to sacrifice something – something as significant as the blood of his own Son – to make a way as high as heaven.

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ not only was necessary, it was an assurance of pardon, privilege, and divine love.

Perceiving this truth, Schaeffer said, “I’m filled with joy provided by the reality of the goodness of God.”

Such joy is the basis of our strength, too. Such joy – not manufactured, but received; not earned, but granted – is not only the enabling power of the Christian life, it is the reality that makes our walk of faith not mere duty but a delight.

Respond: Do you remember what it felt like when you first understood your sin was forgiven and you were a child of God? The joy that filled you—not because you were perfect, but because you were beloved?

Schaeffer said that joy had gone a long way from him. And his renewal began when he reclaimed it—not by achieving more, but by returning to the simple, profound reality: Christ has made a way. I am treasured. I am beloved.

This week, it may help you to take a walk to reclaim that truth. You may not have mountain trails to ascend, but maybe just trip around the block or up a stairwell will give you a chance to remember the provision your Heavenly Father made for you. Don’t approach it as a task or a discipline. Approach it as a child climbing a wall, discovering that the Father’s sacrificial investment in you has taken you higher than you imagined you could go.

Prayer: Father, I was darkness—but now I am light in the Lord. That is what You have done, not because of what I have achieved but by your sacrifice. You proved me to be Your beloved child by your provision for me. Let the joy of that truth return to me with fresh power. Let it be my strength—not for performing but for walking, naturally, as a child of light in the light of the Your love. Let the fruit appear not from striving but from remembering how dearly loved I am. In Jesus’ name, Amen.