A Flash Of Illumination

A Flash of Illumination

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17

Although Hannah Whitall Smith grew up in a godly Quaker home, she struggled with the picture of a stern, harsh God and the joyless piety she had seen in the solemn Quaker meetings. She wondered why, if God was so good, he’d make people who are so bent toward evil. She was assailed by questions about everything, and her religious life was miserable. Hannah’s soul hungered to know God, but she wasn’t able to find him.

After the death of Hannah’s first child, five-year-old Nellie, she began to earnestly seek the Lord. On a beach trip with her family, she took only her Bible and a determination to find God. Sitting in the sand, she read the book of Romans, where she discovered that “while we were still sinners,” Christ died for us (Romans 5:8, emphasis added). As she glimpsed God revealed in the face of Jesus, her vision of the love of Christ made her radiantly happy. In a flash of illumination, she knew without a doubt that she didn’t have to try to be righteous or pious. Jesus had paid the price and offered her his righteousness. In those moments Hannah spent in God’s presence, his extravagant love not only healed her grief but brought salvation to her soul. The old passed away, and the new came (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).

From that point on, Hannah Whitall Smith served God as a faithful wife, mother, and grandmother through terrible trials, financial reversals, an unfaithful husband, and prodigal children. She preached throughout England and America and wrote the beloved classic The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life and other works, which have inspired millions of people with the truth that we can not only endure testings and troubles but also live abundant, overcoming, and joyful lives. —CHERI

Lord, like Hannah Whitall Smith, I long to see you as you really are, to know you more, and to experience a joyful Christian life. Grant me a flash of illumination regarding your extravagant love so that I, too, will never be the same.

Many are partakers of God’s grace who have never seen Jesus. Once you have seen Jesus, you can never be the same, other things do not appeal as they used to do. . . . If you have a vision of Jesus as He is, experience can come and go; you will endure “as seeing him who is invisible.”

—OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874–1917), SCOTTISH BIBLE TEACHER, YMCA CHAPLAIN IN EGYPT