What happens when we are overexposed?

Years ago, there used to be camera film to process, in nearly everyone's home. You kept these precious memories in a dark place, lest the overexposure to the sun make them useless remembrances of days and events. Exposure to light would darken the image and no photograph could be produced from the film. I have sat in the sun and played in the sun, until my own skin has been so black that I could be nearly invisible for the blackness. Soon, with less exposure, my complexion would return to normal and I was myself again. Only Grandma would castigate my heedless exposure to the sun. Skin is limited, she would warn. There is only so much sunshine that the skin can endure without skin cancer developing. I kept these warnings in my heart and took care, although ever so incredulously, to try to keep my skin from so much sun. Sometimes, I fear that those whose job it is to handle the Word of Truth may suffer from overexposure to the attributes of God. What are the symptoms of this malady? I know that in my own soul there have been seasons of overexposure and overuse of one specific attribute of God, or means of grace that I have stumbled over and suffered dearly. The clouds of vicisitude roll in and all you have of faith, is like a lightning ball in your hand. It has no power to direct your path. It is simply light and heat as a posession. Perhaps, you do not altogether lose your assurance of salvation, but it does little in your life to preserve from sin and keep from insecurity and draw closer to the God of all Glory. Thank God that He is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is the tender and keeper of our hearts and minds and not we, ourselves. I see Him, {in my mind's eye} preparing a cat of ninetails for my soul to turn over the fallowness of my moneychangers self remnants. In eternal love, He removes the self-preserved unholy uses of holy ambitions. Sometimes, it is in meeting someone whose struggle is completely opposite of my own. Sometimes, it is the darkness of griefs that roll in like the tide that turns me on my ear and remind me of the need to hold onto God and not my ambitions for God or for myself in God. Somedays my heart feels like the chaff, crushed and scattered, for aching. Is that what you meant is the fruit of unbelief, when my broken heart is unable to be gathered for the dissimulation? God reminds me that He is greater than my heart. Some preach and teach from such a guarded heart that they are always the predator of hearts and never the preyed upon. Jesus stated that He sends us forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. The predator of hearts is a state that is in danger of perhaps having been seared.

Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly...

Where are you God, when I am overexposed? When I am feeling my heart, like chaff flitting and broken and hardened and preyed upon and a predator? Even then, God has the remedy. Even then, it is not unto us to find or be the remedy. It is God who will fashion the instruments of right exposure and right sensitivity to sin and to unrighteousness. God is growing us up into Christ in all things. Service and challenge can be a jarring element to shake us from this fatal ease. Decorum can be a curtain of hiding our impurities until we are dealt with by God's Word, in discipline and restoration. We know when we are in the danger of making shipwreck of our faith. Those closest to the light and heat of the power of God are the most in danger of really being deceived by demons. Satan, himself sits as an angel of light. Help us Lord, who know You and feel that we love You, be submitted to Your word in truth and not for our own glory. Desensitize our overexposure and restore our skin from the burns that we have inflicted upon ourselves. Disect our intentions to us that we may be true to You and not deceived by our own lusts. We will glorify Your name for Your faithfulness to our souls. In Jesus name, Amen.