The last aspect of walking in the light thatI will mention here is being thankful.This will help with many areas ofyour life. Start by recognizing that God is the creator of all things. Look atall the trees, all the flowers, all the clouds, stars, sun, and moon. ThankGod. Then thank God for all of your family. Thank Him for all wildlife: fish,animals, and birds.

“Givethanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1Thess. 5:18). 

“Donot be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition,with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Andthe peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heartsand your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7).

Giving thanks is God’s will for you. Itresults in peace that passes all comprehension.

“Ihave not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers” (Eph.1:16). 

“Ithank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, Ialways pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the firstday until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in youwill carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:3-6).

Being thankful is an exercise of thewill in obeying God’s command to be thankful in everything. The Scripture doesnot say, “Be thankful foreverything.” Be thankful ineverything. I am not thankful forbeing sick, but I can be thankful inbeing sick. When I am thankful in everything, then I can rejoice always.  When I make my petitions to God withthankfulness, I end up with peace.

One of the signs of walking in the lightis singing. This is not a way to walkin the light, but a result of it. When you walk in the light, you may end upsinging to the Lord, even if you don’t know any great hymns.

I knew one young woman who had been “converted” several timesand still wasn’t saved. She had read every book in the Christian bookstore andgone to every counselor in town. She went to multiple people for counseling, attended ourschool of practical Christianity, and read several books. I met with them botha couple times and with her more times. She knew all the answers but did notseem able to put them into effect in her life.

One day she showed up at our front door. Bessie met her and told her togo sit in one of the chairs under the apple tree in the backyard while she wentto find me.

At that moment, I was reading a book by Watchman Nee, and I had justread a paragraph where Nee said (to paraphrase), “Two men can hear the sametext preached at the same time. ‘I am the way the truth and the life, no mancometh to the Father but by me.’ One person will hear that text and say,‘Oh, that’s wonderful!’ and will come to the Father through Jesus Christ.Another person will say, ‘Oh, what a wonderful doctrine!’ and come to thedoctrine.”

Having just read that paragraph, I quoted it to the young woman underthe apple tree. She asked me, “What is the difference between the two?” 

I said, “The first has love, joy, and peace, and the other has a plaqueon the wall.”

The next day she called to tell me that she was not a Christian. Ireplied that I did not think she was, either. She got upset with me because Iagreed with her.

I told her that I would not tell her how to become a Christian. Her headwas filled with the gospel already. If I told her, she would go through themotions and not be any more saved afterwards. I said, “I’m not going totell you how to become a Christian, because you are a doer, and you’d just goplug the formula. You’ve plugged it several times already, and nothing’shappened. If I tell you how to come to the Father, you won’t understand it.Grace, love, faith: all these terms you know by heart are empty words to you.There are certain things you need to find out for yourself first. You have tofind out that God is holy. You have to find out how awfully sinful you are. Youhave to find out how great the love of God is. After you have some glimmer of theholiness of God, and after you have some small understanding of how sinful youare in the light of that holiness, and after you begin to see how much love Godhas for you in your sinfulness, then I will tell you the good news.”

I did not hear from her for several weeks. Then she called and asked,“How could the Father love the Son and send Him to the cross?” She was startingto understand.

“Oh!” I replied. “It didn’t say He lovedthe Son. It says, ‘For God so loved the worldthat He gave His only-begotten Son.’ That tells us not how much He loves the Son, buthow much He loves the world.”

I realized that she probably had enoughunderstanding for me to tell her the gospel. However, I wanted to speakto her heart. Her head was already filled with truth, but it had not sunk in. Idecided to give her the gospel in song and poetry. Over the phone, I sang herhymns like The Love of God, The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus, and At Calvary.

Sometime later, she was working a job cleaningapartments. As she ran the vacuum, she was singing, “He is Lord, He is Lord, Hehas risen from the dead, and He is Lord,” and she was saved in themiddle of the chorus. She was looking up to God, and her conversion was real.

After we are saved by grace throughfaith, walking in the light is a grace/faith event. There is no other way.Colossians 2:6 says, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesusthe Lord, so walk in Him” (ESV). How did you receive Christ Jesus theLord? By effort? By trying? No. You quit trying when you received Christ Jesusthe Lord, and you trusted. When you quit trying and trusted grace, the Lordchanged your life.

“Therefore, as youreceived Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” The same procedure bywhich I was saved is the way I live the Christian life. When I became aChristian, I quit trying—and having become one, I still quit trying. Living theChristian life is like being born again every instant. It’s grace and faith.You didn’t try to get in, and you don’t try to live.

You say, “Yes, I do.”

Well, I want to know this: do yousucceed?

People come to me and say, “Jim, I don’tknow why I failed. I tried to livethe Christian life.”

“Oh,” I say, “that’s why. You fellbecause you tried to live the Christian life.”

We are not to try to live the Christianlife. Walking in the light is grace, faith, grace, faith. As soon as we getsaved, we are tempted to revert to trying. We are not to do that. The entirebook of Galatians was written against that. Paul said, “Oh foolish Galatians!”(Gal. 3:1). You idiots! Tell me how you got into this kingdom. “Did you receivethe Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you sofoolish? Having been made alive by the Spirit, are you now made perfect by theflesh?” (Gal. 6:2-3).

Look up to God and reject trying. This is what the New Testament teaches. We read it and hearsomething else. We try to reinterpret everything into something we can do. Donot read this Scripture and go back to trying.

“If I don’t try, I’ll fall.”

If you do try, you’ll fall.

A multitude of groupstoday are out there teaching the secret way to the “deeper life,” and seekersflock to them by the thousands. Those ways don’t work. This is true, and it works,but people aren’t flocking to it—because they don’t want to walk in the light.They want a quick fix that doesn’t require so much cleaning of their hearts.They would rather try, or they would rather have a periodic cleansing.

Christians today do notwalk in complete joy, nor are they whiter than snow. They are living subnormalChristian lives. However, it is possible to walk in the light as He is in thelight. That way, you do not have to keep confessing so many of the same sins over and over, because you will not commit them.    

I used to be a“tryer” and a charger, and the Lord spared me. I am “doing” more with lesseffort now than I used to do with effort. This is so contrary to our normalmode of thinking that it may not make sense to you. Ask God to help it makesense so that you can reject trying and trust Him. Booksthat have helped me walk in the light include The Calvary Road, We WouldSee Jesus, and Broken People,Transforming Grace: The Gospel’s Message of Saving Love by Roy Hession and Continuous Revival and The Key to Everything by Norman Grubb.

For more on living by gracethrough faith, read my book Dead andAlive: Obedience and the New Man, available at Amazon.com and ccmbooks.org.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships