Have you ever walked into a room to turn on the light, and the light either doesn’t work or is flickering? The lightbulb’s job is to light up the room and when the bulb is either not working, or truly connected to the power source, it’s not able to do its job! Walking around in the dark proves to be an interesting task.
A few days ago my kitchen light started flickering and I really started thinking about this topic. Not only that, but the event at my church that evening was all about shining your light! Talk about a God-cidence! We are called to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16) and that means letting Jesus shine through us as Christians to make a positive impact in the world!
This world seems to be getting darker and darker, and there’s a lot to process with God right now. So how can we process these things with God and shine our light in a dark world?
- What do you fill our hearts with? (Psalms 119:11)
I’ll follow that up with another question. When was the last time we opened our bibles and got filled up with the word of God? My pastor always says, “Put the word of God in when you don’t need it, so it’s there for you when you do!” I also saw another pastor use a great example that’s always stayed with me. He got a pb&j sandwich and pressed down on it, and guess what spilled out on the sides? Pb&J! He talked about how important it is to be filled up with the word of God, because when we’re in a place of pressing in our life, what we’ve filled our hearts with will be what flows out. Jesus asks us to follow Him, and sometimes like Peter in Matthew 14:28-31, we doubt and get our eyes off Jesus and focus on the storms and waves around us. Psalms 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” When we don’t know what to do, we go back to what we do know from the word of God. We want to serve God from a place of overflow, not a place of “just enough.”
- “Destiny comes through intimacy.” - Pastor Jim Frease
When it comes to shining our light, it comes with purpose and destiny. As we spend time with the Lord in prayer, praise, and reading the word, destiny begins to be revealed. This can take years for us to discover, BUT God has purpose for us every day. We just need to be available to do so! Maybe God is asking us to be brave and share the gospel with others, or maybe He is asking us to encourage someone. When we do this, the light of the Lord shines brightly through us! We are called as Christians, to know God and make Him known!
- Humble Ourselves (James 4:10)
When we humble ourselves before the Lord and trust that He knows what’s best for us, we want to walk in obedience because we trust Him, and when we do that, God is able to shine His light brightly through us! When we walk in pride, our light tends to dim because we’re so occupied with what we believe is the best. “Be quick to listen, and slow to speak,” James 1:19.
- Put on the Garment of Praise (Isaiah 61:3)
The garment of praise was something to put on to indicate celebration, and in scripture it's used as a metaphor. It means, choosing to praise the Lord even though we don’t understand everything going on right now. It changes the atmosphere and our perspective, it gets our focus back on Jesus and not on the wind and the waves, and it’s us choosing the fruit of the Spirit that is already within us as born again believers (Galatians 5:22-23). We are called to right now because we were made for such a time as this (Esther 4:14). We were born at the exact time we were created to be. If you’re a born again believer, you have a bright light inside of you that is waiting to shine! We’ve been created for purpose and are capable of everything God has called us to.
In conclusion, this was the final thing on my heart...the reason bad things happen in the world is because there's a bad devil and people are far from God. God is still good and that will never change, but He is limited by our availability and choices because we have free will. He knows what’s best, but do we listen? Just how God uses His people to help and bless others, the devil uses people that are far from God to hurt people. “The devil has come to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came to give us life and it more abundantly” John 10:10. Prayer is powerful and miracles do happen, but remember God isn’t a spare tire. He wants to shine brightly in our lives every day and He needs us when it comes to sharing the gospel, discipling others, and encouraging them. What an honor to be a part of His plans! He is so faithful! I pray this encourages you and helps your relationship with the Lord grow as we continue to seek Him in this dark world.
~Juliana
